Today celebrates 50 years of Earth Day, a day of global environmental action where individuals and organisations across the world come together to raise awareness and support for environmental protection.
Focusing on promoting clean living and a healthy, sustainable habitat for people and wildlife alike, celebrating Earth Day serves as a conscious reminder of how fragile our planet is and how important it is to protect it.
This years theme is Climate Change, something that we have all heard from, can relate to and have been and will be affected by.
The Earth’s average temperature is about 15C but has been much higher and lower in the past, there are natural fluctuations in the climate but scientists say temperatures are now rising faster than at many other times. This is due to greenhouse gasses. Some gases in the Earth’s atmosphere trap heat and stop it escaping into space. These gases act as a warming blanket around the Earth, known as the ‘greenhouse effect’.
Greenhouse gases come from both human and natural sources. Gases like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide naturally occur in the atmosphere. Others, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), are only produced by human activity.
Earth Day focuses on how small changes can make a huge difference, we’ve already seen that during lockdown, pollution and smog in large cities around the world has reduced a scary amount!
We’ve also seen a huge growth and activity in wildlife thanks to the corona-lockdown and the limited ability of humans to move around like they usually do:-
Trees not only cool things down (collectively, they can help decrease a city’s temperature by up to 10 degrees) but they also clean the air and give off more oxygen, among a ton of other benefits.
Another option is to plant your own fruits and veggies which will benefit your health and reduce the amount of fossil fuel emissions by not having to transport the food to stores.
With social distancing and a limit on our outdoor exercise, swap a car journey for a walk or a cycle. If you live close to the shops, take a walk instead, get to known your neighbourhood a bit more and have a walk around; try to keep this habit up after lockdown, it’s amazing what you spot when you’re walking!
If you don’t fancy a walk and you have access to it, send some time outside! Put your phone down, close your social apps and just spend some time away from the screen, Earth Day is just a reminder of how beautiful and awesome our planet is. Take advantage of it! Spend the afternoon outdoors reading, having lunch, or just taking in deep breaths of the fresh air.
Get involved! Head over to change.org to see how to make your voice count, or tune in to Earth Day Live >>https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-live/ for talks, performances and inspiring messages.
Fast fashion has a huge environmental impact; churning out 100billion new garments every year that more often than not, end up unworn or in landfill.
“Fast Fashion is also no friend to the environment. The excessive textile production needed to keep up with Fast Fashion results in overwhelming CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to polluting the air, Fast Fashion is also polluting the earth’s water. It takes 2,700 litres of water to make 1 cotton t-shirt.”
Find out more about the impact of fast fashion HERE
So instead of hitting the online shops, have a look at the clothes you’ve already got; rediscover old pieces or customise them into new ones! Get sewing, get tie-dying, get studding! Celebrate Earth Day by crafting an entirely new look out of the clothes you already have!
For some customising tips, check out THIS ARTICLE from some of the biggest names in fashion
Also, check out these TIPS on how to cut down your fashion consumerism
“Here in the UK, millions of us are already doing our bit to use more of the food we buy each week. Between us, we’re saving just under £5 billion a year compared with 2007, not to mention saving 5.0 million tonnes of CO2 – that’s like taking 2.1 million cars off the road.”
Reducing food waste is also critical for helping the environment (and our finances) Love Food, Hate Waste have been into college several times to share their TIPS & TRICKS; check out their website for the latest details and inspiration.
Celebrating Earth Day serves as a conscious reminder of how fragile our planet is and how important it is to protect it. … we celebrate Earth Day to continue promoting environmental awareness and to remind us that we can protect the earth in our everyday lives as well.
If you’re lacking inspo for other ways to make today or how to develop new helpful habits, check out earthday.org‘s 46 tips to MAKE A DIFFERENCE EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR
If you’re doing something for Earth Day, drop us an email on marketing@kidderminster.ac.uk and we’ll give you a shout out!
