Earth Day 2018

Another Earth Day project is a stream team working to help clean up an Ozark stream.

Photo courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

Sunday, April 22 will mark the 48th anniversary of Earth Day with events across the country for people of all ages and interest.

The theme for this year is End Plastic Pollution.

Plastics are poisoning and injuring marine life, disrupting human hormones, littering our beaches and landscapes and clogging our streams and landfills. The exponential growth of plastics is now a threating the survival of our planet.

Anyone can plant a tree to celebrate Earth Day 2018 on April 22.

Photo courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

In response, Earth Day 2018 is dedicated to providing information and inspiration needed to fundamentally change human attitude and behavior about plastics.

April 22, 1970, marked the first Earth Day with events across the country. Millions of people took to the streets to protest the negative impacts of 150 years of industrial development. In the United States and around the world smog has become deadly, evidence pointed to development delays in children.

The global awareness was growing and Congress and President Nixon responded. In July 1970, they created the Environmental Protection Act as well as the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act.

Earth Day is now a global event each year with more than one billion people in 192 countries now take part. Earth Day will help educate people about health and other risks associated with the use and disposal of plastics including pollution of our water and wildlife.

When asked, “What can I do?” the range is endless. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved while learning of the many ways everyone can do to help improve the environment and the outdoor recreation that we all enjoy.

Events may range from a climate rally held in Washington D.C. to planting a tree in your backyard while stream clean-up will go on in several places over the country.

Earth Day is more than a single day, it’s bigger than attending a rally and taking a stand. Some of the ways you can celebrate Earth Day include the following;

If you are in a situation where you can actually walk or ride your bike or carpool to get from place to place then it may be time for you to consider that. The fewer cars on the road, the better off we will be when it comes to our atmosphere.

You can volunteer your time to organizations (local or national) that put effort into making the world a better place and helping the environment. There are things that you can do on Earth Day that may be local activities as well.

Do you have a recycling plan in place? If you do, start looking into what you have in order to expand what you’re recycling. If you don’t then you want to take a look and see what you can recycle in your area.

Plant a tree. Trees are a big part of our earth, and planting one will just add to the health and wellness of the world that we live in.

Earth Day will focus on fundamentally changing human attitude and behavior about plastics and focus on a significant reduction in plastic pollution.

Paul Mayfield, of Joplin, said, “There is something I have done for years, a good Earth Day project is recycling. There are too many garbage dumps, landfills and junkyards in the country that are filling up with things that might have been reused, recycled or composted.”

Robert Walker, Carthage, is another person that believes in recycling. He said, “several years ago, on Earth Day, I started recycling anything I could. My wife told me that we have helped the earth by recycling tons of items that otherwise would have landed in a landfill. She is right. This past year I told a couple of my neighbors about starting recycling to celebrate Earth Day and they agreed that they would.”

On this anniversary of Earth Day, many events will be going on throughout the country and as Mayfield said, “We all need to be ready to clean up and green it up.”