make everyday earth day

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.  ~Henry David Thoreau

There’s so much pollution in the air now that if it weren’t for our lungs there’d be no place to put it all.  ~Robert Orben 

For 200 years we’ve been conquering Nature.  Now we’re beating it to death.  ~Tom McMillan, quoted in Francesca Lyman, The Greenhouse Trap, 1990 

Earth day is a very special day that happens every year on April 22^nd when we get to learn about our planet and how to take care of it. This is a day where we get to help out Earth and make our world cleaner and greener. April 22, 1970 was the first Earth Day holiday. Everyone all over the country made promises to help the environment. Almost all got involved and ever since it was no longer just a United States holiday but a holiday for all the other countries in the world. Earth day was basically a special day created for people to know what problems we need to work on and look at the planet and see what needs to be changed.

A little brief history…Earth day wasn’t just a random idea popped out of someone’s head; it happened because someone was really worried about our planet and that someone was Senator Gaylord Nelson. Even in 1963, Senator Nelson knew that our world was getting dirty and that many of our planets and animals were dying. Can you believe that? It was as early as 1963 when our Earth was being damaged by us. Senator Nelson was clueless of why more people weren’t trying to help out and solve these problems. Although he talked with lawmakers and the President about his concerns, he still did not have enough people working to solve the problem. Then in 1969 Senator Nelson came up with a brilliant and successful idea to help Earth. His idea was to have a certain special day in order to teach everyone about such environmental problems that needed to be discussed and changed. In order to make it happen, he sent letters to all of the colleges, put a special article in Scholastic Magazine that most of the schools got. Senator Nelson had his belief that kids would help him when they read it. And the kids did. In less than a year, his plan was a success and everyone all over the world got involved in the idea. Nowadays, Earth day is a special event held at schools to help out in the cause. Every year on Earth day in my old school, all the classes from kinder to twelfth grade planted trees and named it. Not only is Earth day about work, it’s also about having fun too. I know from experience that we all enjoy watching the trees grow as I have seen my first tree grow for almost three years. It was a splendid and amazing experience for me that such a small tree would grow bigger before I noticed. The quotes up above…I found them disturbingly true. It’s scary that they are all true. I wish for the day when all our problems disappear because we had made the change. I wish for the day when it seems that we’re starting all over again. But for this to happen, we need to do something. And that is to make everyday Earth day and not just one day. One day of helping out the Earth doesn’t really mount to anything. I mean, the smallest things help, but if you equal one Earth day to 365 days of polluting and damaging, that one day will not help. So, the biggest challenge is to make everyday Earth day. One main reason this seems to be harder than it sounds is because we all seem to forget. We are all so used to materials that damage the world that we don’t want to stop using them. These materials are comfortable and easy to use that we don’t want to give them up. Honestly, I don’t want to give them up either. And we don’t have to. But if we do use our resources lesser than we use them normally, then we could make a difference—only a small change but a small change is better then none. I hope that we all help out in the cause and make everyday like earth day.