We all enjoy holidays, whether it’s the winter holidays, Halloween, or any of the other many holidays throughout the year. Yet one much overlooked holiday is looming right in front of us. It is a holiday of great importance, and it happens to fall on April 22 this year. I am talking, of course, about Earth Day.

Earth Day is a chance to celebrate the amazing world in which we live. Yet not only is it a chance to celebrate, it is a chance to become more aware about the problems that plague our globe. Take our oceans. Every day, thousands of pounds of pollution are being dumped in the oceans around the world. In fact, two-thirds of United States bays have been eroded by acidic waters brought on by pollution. Global warming is causing a raise in ocean temperatures, causing former animal habitats to become inhospitable to certain species. In fact, since 1999 there has been a decline in ocean plant health. As such a large part of our planet, oceans need to be protected and cared for.

One of the greatest problems plaguing our planet is the buildup of trash in landfills.  With 256 million tons of trash being produced annually in the United States alone, the amount of trash buildup on our planet is staggering. And this is not going to go away. People one hundred years from now will still find the soda can you threw out last week, or the plastic bag that held you sandwich at lunch (that includes all the new Styrofoam and plastic wrappings at the salad bar). By recycling, you can help reduce this enormous waste of material. Try to being your lunch in reusable containers. Save your plastic utensils, as these can be reused.

Another problem in our world is deforestation. The world’s forests are being depleted at an alarming rate, with thirty five million acres being destroyed each year. Forests are vital to removing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from our air. In destroying our forests, we are increasing the carbon dioxide in our air and furthering global warming. By destroying these forests, we are depriving native animals of their habitats. We are also driving other plants and animals to extinction, over fifty a day! Over 30% of our medicines are made from tropical plants. By destroying these ecosystems, we are destroying possible cures for the many illnesses that plague us today. By killing these forests, we may be inadvertently killing ourselves.

These are but a few of the many problems that plague our world. It is our duty, as citizens of this globe, to act on these issues. So on April 22^nd, take five minutes out of your day to learn about an issue. Take the bottle from lunch and recycle it. Use the washable trays and silverware instead of the Styrofoam usually offered. Reuse a scrap of paper instead of throwing it away. Together, we can make this Earth Day not only a day of celebration, but of action.

As I was recently asked to be the blogger for the Global Awareness Club at my school, I thought this would be a great place to post the blogs as well. This one was from a few weeks ago when we really kicked off our recycling campaign.

 

Hey everyone! I’ve finally got the blog up and running (yes, I’m aware it took me long enough). I thought for my first entry that I should do something that really hits home with our group. Since the recycling campaign is currently going on in our school, I thought it to be a worthy topic to plunge into. Here are some facts:

1. Every year we make enough plastic to shrink-wrap Texas. How much of this do you think is actually recycled?
2. 1 ton of non-recycled paper uses 12 average size trees to produce.
3. When you toss out one aluminum can you waste as much energy as if you’d filled the same can half-full of gasoline and poured it into the ground (and at $3 a gallon, that’s not cheap!)
4. Americans throw away enough aluminum every month to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.
5. We save 17 trees for each ton of recycled newspaper!
6. We save enough energy by recycling one aluminum can to run a TV set for three hours!
7. Glass never wears out -- it can be recycled forever. We save over a ton of resources for every ton of glass recycled -- 1,330 pounds of sand, 433 pounds of soda ash, 433 pounds of limestone, and 151 pounds of feldspar!
8. Each year America throws away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups, enough every year to circle the earth 436 times!

 

Do I have your attention yet? The problem before us is obvious. The excessive garbage produced by humans is killing the planet. We have a stranglehold on our planet’s resources. We believe that the planet can just keep on producing at its current rate and that nothing will happen. This is not so. It will be us and our children and their children who will have to deal with this major problem. Yet even today, we can feel the consequences of not recycling. The oceans are infested with garbage! The sides of the roads are paved with recyclable paper waste! In fact, just the other day I was driving behind someone and I saw him or her chuck a RECYCLABLE McDonald’s bag out the window. Besides this being dangerous, it is also a waste of resources. Our planet cannot sustain all that we are throwing at her. We are exhausting her and we are beginning to feel the consequences. In the past decades, rainforests have been destroyed using clear-cutting and slash-and-burn methods. These actions have destroyed over 600,000 square miles of rainforest in the Amazon alone, and that’s a conservative estimate. The real numbers are much, much higher! And where is all this land going to, you ask? It is going to a few places. One is grazing land for cattle used by the fast-food industry, another lumber companies. Yet the majority is used for paper products. This wanton wasting of resources is killing our planet. Another consequence of this is that the rainforests, which area able to trap millions of tons of CO2, are being destroyed. This natural absorbent for atmospheric CO2 is disappearing, worsening the global worming problem. It is up to us, the people of this generation, to stand up and make a difference. The next time you see someone about to throw a bottle or can away, tell him or her to recycle it. Offer to take is for them if you have to. Sure, you might feel like a total idiot, but remember, you’re saving the planet (and you just kept someone’s TV running for 3 more hours J). At lunch, save your water bottle or soda can and when you get back to class recycle it there. Encourage your teachers to get a recycling bin if they already haven’t. Do the little things. In the long run they make a world of difference. And that is what it is all for. Making a difference for the WORLD. If we all work together, I know we can do it. So remember, save a can, save a bottle, save a piece of paper, and SAVE OUR PLANET!

 

I think it is clear that, overall, people do not care enough about the oceans and its wild life. Global warming is making ocean temperatures higher, which is killing sensative organisms, such as coral. Next we have pollution and trash dumping in the coastal areas, the consequences of which are completely obvious. And now when we thought we had a victory (a partial victory, but a victory never the less) Iceland comes along and undoes it. Once again, greed and complete apathy towards the environment are making this world a very dark place. Future generations are going to look back on us the same way we look at practices from the Middle Ages, which, if done now, would be considered ignorant and barbaric. When future people look back at our treatment of the environment, they will consider it the same as we consider those practises

Hey! I just joined the online community and I want to know how to become an actual member of Greenpeace. Could someone send me some info or some tips? Thanks.

Bush announced this past week that the US will introduce climate change and greenhouse gas reduction at this years Group of 8 summit. He claims that he will call for other nations to start more measures to reduce greenhouse gases. Now, wouldn't the first step to this be going back and ratifying Kyoto? It can be done. Just introduce it in Congress and it would get passed by the Democratic majority (if they finally lived up to their campaign promises). But no, he's calling for post-Kyoto plans. So basically global warming isn't going to kick in until after Kyoto expires is what he wants to tell us. The world won't change until then so we can just keep polluting to our hearts intent until then.

Does anyone else see the tactics in this? Promise nothing until at least 2013, when he's long gone (except for his legacy of dead soldiers, destroyed Alaskan wilderness, huge oil interests, and millions of pounds of literal hot air, both emission and speech related). Now there's a tactic for you. It looks like he is doing something when in reality he is doing nothing, just to shut people up about how he does not care. He does not care that even now global warming is changing our planet in drastic ways that will have drastic consequences. Will people open their eyes? Will they see the light of what has really happened? Will America finally come out of the strom to find that the world is in trouble and it will take every one of us to help?