A Day to Remember the Earth

This is my entry to the Affluent Persons Living Sustainably or APLS Carnival. April’s topic is whether Earth Day is still relevant. The selected entries will be hosted by Ruchi at Arduous Blog on April 22 so be sure to take a break from your Earth Day activities to read what everyone has to say. You can learn more about this and future carnivals at APLS.

I believe that while the significance of Earth Day has changed since its founding, there is still a need to designate a day to celebrate and honor the earth and to educate ourselves for the best ways to do so.

In my view, the current version of Earth Day is a cross between an anniversary and the keynote speech at a multi-day conference. I love my husband every day but our anniversary provides us a special opportunity to review our relationship, be proud of the accomplishments we have made, and re-dedicate ourselves to our future. Among the crush of everyday life, we need a reminder to think about how we care for the earth.

With Earth Day now receiving a big build up in the media, the month of April has become an opportunity learn new information and tips I can use to reduce my family’s impact on the earth. Earth Day often serves as a culmination of this longer process. When I checked our local paper for today’s calendar, I found events all over the city that touch on a wide variety of topics. These events will bring together the themes I heard pieces of throughout the month.

Perhaps even more importantly for our future, I have watched Earth Day become An Event for children. My youngest was as excited this morning as she was for Halloween! Both my eldest daughter’s elementary school and my youngest daughter’s preschool have encorporated environmental and recycling information into their curriculum this month, with an emphasis on what the children can do to make a difference. I love that their excitement will be part of their childhood memories and think it is so valuable that they regularly ask to do things because they will be good for the earth. That is what we need going forward.

Earth Day began as an event to educate people on the environmental issues facing our world. While people still differ in opinion on the precise issues we face, there is a higher level of understanding and awareness now than there used to be. But the problems we face have also changed. I believe that the more pathways people can take to learn about what the problems are and what they can do to address them, the better.

For all these reasons, I’m thrilled to celebrate Earth Day today.

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