Earth Day

There are many holidays in April, but one that is often forgotten is actually one of the most important. Earth Day is an annual worldwide event dedicated to helping protect the planet from pollution, deforestation, etc. Earth Day was first held on April 22, 1970, and has been going strong for 52 years.

Jasmine O’Connor, Eco-Club president at Central High School has a few tips on what people can do for Earth Day. O’Connor says that “for Earth Day people need to think about ways they can change their habits, like easy habits they can change with recycling or even just trying to minimize food waste.” She explains that “since Earth Day is such a great day in the year you could dedicate that day to if you see trash on the ground, or if you see things that need to be cleaned up in a way, you could take care of that.”

Jasmine shares that for Earth Day, Central’s Eco-Club is, “going to be having an all-school trash cleanup that’s going to be happening around Central High School to help encourage people to clean up our community and our environment.”

However, Earth Day isn’t the only day we should be looking out for our planet. Jasmine says that “on a daily basis you could be choosing to use less single-use plastic and choosing to use a recyclable bottle instead of a single-use one. Even using a single-use water bottle and reusing it multiple times, it’s the same with plastic bags. There are a lot of different ways we can reuse things.”

Earth Day can also be an incredible way to really get outside and enjoy nature. Jasmine shares some fun activities she personally loves doing in nature, “I love going on hikes. I love hiking and down near the Anita Purves Center in Urbana in Busey Woods. Especially in the fall and when the seasons change it is so gorgeous. I also really enjoy going on nature walks and just taking in nature fully.”

There are many websites and organizations you can join to help contribute back, and even doing small things like turning lights off when you aren’t using them or buying more environmentally friendly products helps give back to the Earth.

Despite the fact that Earth Day may only be once a year, every day should be a day you help contribute back to the Earth.