This year, Earth Day is something to be prideful for. Unlike every other year since Earth Day’s inception and creation in 1970, we have all seen changes unlike anything we could have imagined due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s insurgence last spring. The environment we know and love on our planet Earth has changed rapidly since COVID-19’s beginning, and ironically, the shutdowns have shown us all — not just in the U.S. but across the globe — that even just the littlest change can make a difference. This year, make sure to start moving away from single-use plastics if you have not already done so, even if it’s just for a day.
Plastic has always been a danger to the environment, and it has led to damages in both the worldwide landfills as well as within the wildlife among the oceans in the world. According to statistics reported by The Guardian, there are more than five trillion pieces of plastic in the oceans across the world. It is important that we understand the threat of plastics and that we as inhabitants on this amazing, beautiful planet that we call home can make a difference, even if it is as something as little as just exchanging plastics for reusable alternatives. Not only will the planet be better by our actions, but by having these actions become continuous, we can turn around the way our planet is going, one step at a time. That all begins with the change to electrical power rather than fossil fuels and going from using plastics to turning to metallic china and other alternatives.
We’ve already seen this today through movements across the world for recycling and to stop global warming, the use of sustainable alternatives like reusable bags at grocery stores and the constant poison that we feed our world’s environments and atmosphere. With young people like Greta Thunberg and others calling upon world leaders for environmental action, it has brought a new light to the day that most people have come to forget. It is important that the generations that grow up today know the importance of these movements and do not forget them. Nonetheless, we as human beings have a duty to help make our world a better place for our kids, their kids and for generations after them. Just having the spirit to try to make a difference is all that one needs to succeed in this great day to celebrate our world.
In upcoming weeks, myself and several classmates of mine want you to join in the celebration to go green starting on April 22, and hopefully we will all make a difference in the world that we share and live on. It is important to show how much our environment needs protection and how we have a solemn duty to make sure future generations beyond our lifetimes get to witness the beauty and majesty of the Earth that we all have our entire lives.
Jeff Babcock is a fourth-year student majoring in communications and minoring in journalism. Jb884128@wcupa.edu