Throughout the world, there is an ever-growing problem with plastics and Earth Day 2018 is poised to stop the growth and free the Earth from plastic pollution. That is the focus for Earth Day this year with a goal to end plastic pollution by Earth Day 2020, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The Earth Day website is full of ideas, projects, and education that provide tools to making this goal a reality.
Earth Day 2018
Earth Day began in 1970 when millions of people protested the harmful affects from 150 years of industrial development and pollution. Global awareness of the need to make changes was precipitated by a multitude of signs: deadly smog, a decline in biodiversity from pesticides and other pollutants, and a need to protect endangered species. The U.S. Congress and President Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency and passed laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.
Since April 22, 1970, Earth Day has been an annual global event. In 2018, it’s expected 1 billion people in 192 countries will participate in this civic-focused day of action – the largest in the world. People come from various civic, political, corporate, governmental, and religious groups to do their part protecting “God’s greatest creations, humans, biodiversity and the planet we all live on,” a quote from Kathleen Rogers, president of Earth Day Network (EDN), the organization leading Earth Day globally.
The use and disposal of plastics have repercussions throughout the world and that is why Earth Day 2018 is targeting plastic pollution this year and ongoing until at least 2020. Plastics poison and injure marine life, disrupt human hormones, pollute oceans, water, and wildlife and as they slowly decompose, create serious problems globally. It is not overstating the danger of their exponential growth to proclaim plastics are threatening Earth’s survival.
End Plastic Pollution, the EDN multi-year campaign
The EDN goals for this campaign are: “ending single-use plastics, promoting alternatives to fossil fuel-based materials, promoting 100 percent recycling of plastics, corporate and government accountability and changing human behavior concerning plastics.”
The EDN End Plastic Pollution campaign has four primary components:
• Lead a grassroots movement to support the adoption of a global framework to regulate plastic pollution;
• Educate, mobilize, and activate citizens across the globe to demand that governments and corporations control and clean up plastic pollution;
• Promote local government regulatory and other efforts to tackle plastic pollution.
• Educate people worldwide to take personal responsibility for plastic pollution by choosing to reject, reduce, reuse and recycle plastics.
How can you help free the earth of plastic pollution?
Educate
Education is a priority to enlighten and pull together people throughout the world to solve this critical problem. From the earliest grades through university, there are lesson plans, activities, and a calculator of your plastic pollution footprint.
Get Involved
Sign up and join the world’s largest environmental movement and receive occasional update emails.
Donate
Support EDN and its mission to broaden, diversify, and mobilize the environmental movement throughout the globe.
Spread the word
Use your social media and other forums to educate and introduce others to ways we all can help clean up our beautiful planet.
If you as an individual or family have plans for an Earth Day activity, register here and “get on the map”. For organizations with a planned activity, register here.
