This Earth Day, you are invited to increase your knowledge and literacy about global climate change. We are 3 years away from celebrating 50 years of Earth Day celebrations in 2020. It all started in 1970. Scientists at that time were starting to sound the alarm and telling us that we needed to start paying attention to how we live our lives. Fast forward to today and Earth Day is a large movement that gathers enormous amounts of people each year. People coming together, in solidarity, saying that the Earth is in fact worth protecting.
The original peoples of this planet new instinctively from the very beginning that they needed to tread lightly on the Earth. They knew that it was important to care for the precious resources that sustained their life on this planet. They honoured the gifts that this planet provided them in the forms of food, medicine and life sustaining water. They used resources as needed and made sure not to waste. Today, indigenous people around the world are still at the frontlines of protecting this planet and the resources that continue to sustain human life. Our life. The life of our children and their children and so on.
This year Earth Day is focused on environmental and climate literacy. The goal is to get more knowledge out to people because knowledge is power. Everyone can be empowered with the knowledge to act in defence of environmental protection. The idea is to protect the Earth for future generations.
Earth Day organizers want to help build a world where people want to create sustainable communities for all people. They would like to see a mobilized global citizenry that will chant the truth of climate change and they want to help provide ways for everyone to easily get involved in local environmental action.
The thing with climate change is that it affects the most vulnerable citizens of this planet first and most severely. Having said that we are already seeing the impacts of climate change here in Ontario. The impacts are on our health, they are economic, on our forest sector, water and species and ecosystems. We are talking about smog (Lake Erie area), air pollution, West Nile Virus, Water-Borne diseases, deadly heat, droughts, forest fires, rising tree lines, loss of wildlife habitat, pest infestations, rising ocean temperatures, etc…
Only by working together can we address the threats of ocean pollution, toxins, species loss, and a multitude of other environmental issues never been seen before. Earth Day is about individuals and communities standing up for the environment. Check out your local community farmers market, look for groups that are planting gardens or trees in your community. Finally stop using plastic bags when shopping. Be aware of what you buy and how much packaging your are going to have to throw away. Little steps tend to lead to being more aware and then to more and more little steps until you have changed your ways and have become a protector of the planet. When you have achieved that status, then your invisible super-cape comes in the mail (in an equally invisible envelope)!
Here is the link to the Earth Day official website for lots of ideas on how to get involved: http://www.earthday.org/earthday
You can also check out Earth Day Canada at https://earthday.ca/.
Happy Earth Day friends!
Josée is a registered midwife with Generations Midwifery Care. Read more about Josée here.