Earth Day was celebrated by people all over the country on April 22. Some commemorated the holiday by attending Earth Day rallies, attending beach cleanups, or, of course, posting the collage of the most beautiful pictures of the Earth.
While celebrating the earth is great, the attitude of saving the Earth must carry through the entire year.
In other words, “Treat every day like Earth Day.”
To keep the Earth looking just as beautiful as it does in the Instagram collages, everyone needs to become more conscious of how their actions impact the planet.
A simple way to become more eco-conscious is to educate ourselves.
This allows us to become more aware of the fragility of our environment and how important it will be to continue to protect it.
There are many ways to get educated; one is to watch documentaries.
This one can be a fun activity, and two, extremely beneficial to our understanding of the Earth.
Cassidy Smith, a Northern Essex Community College Early College student, shared that she became more aware of her recycling during Earth Day and hoped to continue this throughout the year.
She is also interested in starting to compost this year. Compost not only reduces landfill space but also can provide soil for gardens rich in nutrients.
Composting does not have to be complicated or even done by yourself. For example, Black Earth Compost is a company near
Smith that picks up compost in a bin, just like a trash truck would do on trash day.
This makes saving the environment accessible and convenient.
Avery Hocheiser, a NECC Early College student, became vegan this year and was especially conscientious of how this impacted the Earth on Earth Day.
Going vegan is an extreme change, and it is not realistic for many people; however, being conscious of our meat intake and attempting to cut it down when possible could greatly help the environment.
A New York Times article titled “What if We All Ate a Bit Less Meat” by Jillian Mock shared that according to a study by the journal Scientific Reports, if everyone in America reduced their consumption of meat by 25% and substituted it with plant-based proteins, 82 million metric tons of greenhouse gases would be saved per year. This reduction is a little more than 1 percent.
Just adding a meatless Monday into the weekly meal plan can help the environment and make you more aware of the impact of meat.
As discussed above, there are also many interesting documentaries to watch about meat’s impact on the environment that could help to increase an understanding of the topic.
One simple thing that Gianna McKeown, an Early College student at NECC, does to help the environment is to bring reusable bags to the store.
Sometimes it can be challenging to remember to bring them with you, so leaving them in the trunk of your car will make you more likely to use them in place of the single-use bags they provide you at the store.
McKeown also shared that she likes to carpool to limit her car usage.
Even better than that, if something is within walking distance, she opts for that, allowing her to get some exercise and reduce her carbon footprint.
Walking will become a great option, especially as the temperatures continue to change.
Overall, the changes made in our lives can be as small as bringing bags to a grocery store to as large as going vegan; both bring us one step closer to helping the environment.
The most important thing is that our work doesn’t stop after April 22, and we continue to do our best to care for our home.
