Today is Earth Day and the theme is “Our power, our planet”.
Let’s take a moment to think about what is happening to Earth. Our planet is in an environmental crisis as climate change has got worse, pollution has got worse and we are losing our biodiversity, like the coral reefs which are are dying. All of this is caused by a rise in greenhouse gas emissions, melting ice caps, extreme weather and a large amount of plastic rubbish in our oceans.
However, there is hope for our planet with everyone’s help. This Earth Day they are putting the power back in your hands. They are asking individuals, communities and businesses to help make changes yourself rather than waiting for governments to make change.
So how can we all help, might be your question?
These can be simple things such as individuals looking at reducing the amount of waste in our homes. Perhaps reusing or recycling items – for example a plastic bottle could be used for plant pot, pencil pot or bee water stations. You could compost food waste and wash clothes out of busy electric hours. You could plant more flowers, trees and make hedgehog safe areas. Change wooden fences to hedges so wildlife like hedgehogs can move around, and they provide more oxygen for our planet. You could recycle or reuse toys that you no longer need.
Communities in all areas can help by setting up litter pick events or join ones already set up. They can set up gardening clubs where they can plant wildflowers in their community to help brighten up areas and help the environment. They could run monthly reuse and recycle events where people bring items like clothes, toys, DVDs etc to swap or take with them. These would help with stopping items going into landfills as people would be reusing them, but also help bring people in the community together.
Businesses can help by looking at their business energy, and how they could use renewable energy to run them like solar panels or wind turbines. They could have wildflower areas on their premises or garden rooftops. They can change how they package parcels using eco friendly packaging or make it compost friendly. They can reduce how much paper they use. Also they could look to compost food waste.
Businesses that make housing developments can make the houses eco-friendly, for example with solar panels on them. The houses could be made from sustainable, non-toxic and renewable materials. Using these reduces environmental impact and energy consumption. They can also make wildlife areas on the housing development and instead of putting up wooden fences, plant tall hedges instead.
With everyone’s help we can make our planet better. So, I end with saying happy Earth Day. The power is in our hands to help our planet.
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