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Celebrate Earth Day 2008

Earth Day is almost here!

Next Tuesday, April 22nd, people in the US and many other countries will celebrate a holiday designed to raise environmental awareness. In observance of Earth Day, here is a brief history of the holiday, followed by some suggestions on ways to celebrate.History of Earth Day

The first Earth Day ever happened on April 22, 1970. The holiday began in America, and was the brainchild of US Senator Gaylord Nelson. Today, Earth Day celebrations often have the air of a festival, with booths and games and other amusements. However, the first Earth Day had a completely different atmosphere-it resembled the protests against the Vietnam War that spread through America like wildfire starting in the 60’s.

Senator Nelson had been concerned about the state of the environment for the past 7 years, but he was discouraged by the lack of attention that was given to the issue in Congress. Watching anti-war demonstrators, he decided to harness their energy and passion in order to spotlight the problem of environmental degradation in America. April 22nd, 1970 brought massive protests all around the country, including a “teach-in” led by Senator Nelson’s office.

People had good reason to be upset. The America of the 1970s was arguably the dirtiest and most polluted America ever. Since the American environmental movement was born in 1970, things have gotten significantly better. For example, the EPA’s website reports that in 1972, only 36% of streams in the US were safe for swimming and fishing.

Today, that number has almost doubled to 60%. Remember that the next time someone calls you a “dirty tree-hugging hippie” for caring about the environment!

Today, the world still faces a great deal of environmental challenges: global warming, pollution, increased energy consumption, and loss of habitat for native plants and animals are just a few examples. The scope of the problem can seem overwhelming, but it’s important not to give up. The only way to successfully address these problems is for everyone to pitch in, work together, and make their voices heard.

Ways to Celebrate Earth Day

So, how should you celebrate Earth Day?

Earth Day is no longer an exclusively American holiday. These days, countries and cities across the globe hold Earth Day gatherings and celebrations. If you have time, try to make it out to one of these gatherings to demonstrate that you care about improving our environment. However, the best way to celebrate Earth Day is to make an Earth Day resolution: resolve to do something new to help reduce your impact on the environment. Plant a tree, start recycling, or replace your incandescent lights with compact fluorescents.

If you’re an artsy-craftsy type, see our Earth Day craft below. Whatever you decide to do, stick with your resolution even after Earth Day is over. If more people lived every day as if it were Earth Day, the earth would be much better off!

Earth Day Craft- Making Reusable Shopping Bags out of Old Clothes

Plastic shopping bags may seem innocuous, but they are actually a common environmental menace. They are usually made with petroleum, they don’t biodegrade easily, and they have a remarkable ability to catch a ride on even the slightest breeze-which can then carry them into places where wildlife can mistake them for food.

Bringing your own bags to the store is becoming ever more common, even in the US. Many stores sell them, but of course it’s always best to recycle! If you have a sewing machine, you can easily recycle old clothing and turn it into reusable cloth shopping bags to use instead of plastic. Jeans make good strong shopping bags, but T-shirts are much easier to store and to work with.

Materials:

One pair of old jeans or an old t-shirt

Sewing scissors

Thread

Sewing machine

Pins

Directions:

1) If you are using blue jeans, cut them off just below the seat, just after the legs begin. Then, turn them inside out. If you are using an old t-shirt, simply turn it inside out for this step.

2) Sew blue jean legs shut. For extra strength, place another row of stitches about 1.5 cm above the first row. If you are using a T-shirt, sew the bottom shut and reinforce it by adding a second row of stitching as described above.

3) The next step is to make a handle for your bag. For jeans, cut off a long rectangle of fabric from the legs, about 9 centimeters wide and as long as you’d like. Fold it in half lengthwise, with the wrong side of the fabric facing out. Now, use your straight pins to pin the sides of the fabric together. Sew the sides together, placing the stitches about 1 centimeter away from the edge of the fabric. You should now have a long, skinny tube of denim. Sew one of the ends of this tube shut. Then, turn the tube inside out, cut the handle to the length that you want it to be, and sew the other end shut. Attach the handle to your bag using your sewing machine. To reinforce the handle, stitch a large “X” over the places where the fabric of the handle meets the fabric of the bag.

4) For T-shirts: Cut the arms and the neck off of the T-shirt. The armholes will make excellent handles. For reinforcement, stitch across the shoulder seams several times to strengthen them.

5) Turn the bag inside out, and you’re done!

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 9:58 am and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.