Every day should be Earth Day

Once again Earth Day is upon us. This year’s event is Saturday, April 22.
Earth Day has been around for 52 years now. Many of us still remember that first Earth Day back in 1970.
At the time there was no Environmental Protection Agency, no Clean Air Act, no Clean Water Act. The day had its beginnings in the United States with what was originally billed as a teach-in on college campuses. The idea was raised in 1969 by peace activist John McConnell who proposed a day to honor the earth and the concept of peace. He proposed doing so on March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. Soon Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson had proposed the idea to hold a nationwide environmental teach-in on April 22, 1970. Soon this day was renamed Earth Day and by the time the day arrived it had grown to include the entire United States and both environmental and non-environmental groups as partners.
The day was a success. Millions of Americans, not just college students participated in rallies, marches and educational programs throughout the country.
Earth Day and the environmental movement have changed a lot since then.
The event is now an international event coordinated globally by earthday.org.
Earth Day still brings people out to special events each year.
Locally, there was a tree planting event in honor of Earth Day last week at Kasson-Mantorville High School. The school’s FFA Chapter planted trees donated by NextEra on the school grounds.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will be celebrating Earth Day with free entrance at all 75 state parks and recreation areas. Several state parks are offering Earth Day events such as the Earth Day celebration at Gooseberry Falls State Park and clean-up events at Frontenac, Lake Bemidji, and Myre-Big Island state parks.
There will also be an Earth Day presentation at Olmsted County’s Quarry Hill Nature Center.
But that first Earth Day has led to many more things than simply celebrating the earth on one day each year.
The increased environmental awareness of the time lead to creation of the EPA, and passage of the Clean Water, Clean Air and Endangered Species Acts.
Numerous pieces of legislation in the years since 1970 have improved many areas of the environment. The global attention to the environmental issues facing humanity have led to international agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement.
The yearly celebrations are useful and remind us all of things we need to do to protect the planet.
But in reality, every day should be Earth Day.
Great progress has been made. But there is still more to be done. To make matters worse, the environment and climate change has been caught up in the political wars in the United States that make so many issues more difficult to deal with.
Every day each one of us makes decisions that do affect the earth’s and our futures. These decisions can be good for the environment or they can be bad for the environment. And we can feel that what one person does will not have much impact but when combined with many other people they can.
And, yes, big changes need the efforts of government, corporations, institutions. But those entities can be pushed into action by the efforts of individuals.
We can certainly disagree on specifics of what the biggest problems are and what the best solutions are. But there are more than opinions involved. There are facts and realities.
Maybe the best way to celebrate Earth Day is to be aware of what we can do every day to preserve our environment and our way of life.