Every Day Should Be Earth Day

On April 22, the City of Mount Vernon launched its observance of Earth Day with events designed to raise public awareness about climate change and pollution, and to propel Mount Vernon’s environmental plans forward.

The 1st tremendous challenge facing our planet is the occupants’ understanding that this is a SERIOUS SITUATION. It definitely needs to be addressed now, or there will not be a later.

Direct issues include the melting of the polar ice caps, contamination of our freshwater resources and climate change.

Given the enormity of these problems, people might roll their eyes or shrug when Earth Day gets mentioned. Some of you might wonder: What difference can I make?

The point of Earth Day is that we can ALL HELP-we all can play a role in reversing toxic trends that could ruin our planet for future generations. Simple measures like reusable shopping bags; recycling of paper, plastic, and metal; and putting litter in its proper place make a big difference.

Facts should scare us into doing better: Normally, plastic items can take up to 1,000 years to decompose in landfills. But plastic bags we use in our everyday life take 10 to 1,000 years to decompose, while plastic bottles can take 450 years or more, according to thebalancesmb.com

And yes, some environmental solutions are not simple or cheap. Requiring polluters to clean up their poisonous emissions costs $$money. Consider it an investment in LIFE-a healthy and clean future.

YET-

some of our most powerful world leaders are not on board. In 2017 President Donald Trump signed a bill reversing a rule imposed by former President Barack Obama that blocked mining companies from dumping mining waste into our waterways. President Trump called the Obama rule costly to fuel prices and a job killer.

CUTTING OFF HIS NOSE DESPITE HIS FACE. Basically, President Trump reversed the anti-dumping rule for the sake of cheap energy.

I completely disagree with President Trump’s action and on April 22 I said so, ‘he’s selling out the children of our world’.

Child activist Greta Ernman Thunberg, a Swedish schoolgirl climate activist who has been described as a role model for worldwide student activism, agrees. She has repeatedly condemned the profit-at-any-cost mentality that’s polluting our world.

“For way too long, the politicians and people in power have gotten away with not doing anything at all to fight the climate crisis and the ecological crisis,” said Greta at an environmental rally this week in Great Britain. “Humanity is now standing at a crossroads. We must now decide which path we will take.”

Greta basically has been telling world leaders to stop worrying about being unpopular and take a stand on cleaning up the environment.

Greta, I hear you. That’s what we’ve been doing here in Mount Vernon. This week alone, we’ve organized a series of public events.

The events range from clean-ups to community gardening, with the overarching goal of building pride in Mount Vernon while improving our world for the future.

The events include:

• April 22: Beautification of Hartley Park all day.
• April 23: School park clean-up at Graham Elementary School at 4 p.m.
• April 23: Every day is Earth Day poster making at Columbus School at 4 p.m.
• April 24: North High Street Community & Therapy Garden build at noon
• April 24: Environmental Education Seminar at City Hall at 6:30 p.m.
• April 27: Saturdays with Shah Community Clean-up at Staples, 275 E. Sandford Blvd, 10 a.m.
• April 27–28: Hunt Woods Park Clean-Up of Laurel Brook from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days.

Fighting climate change and putting the brakes on global pollution isn’t just one person’s job. We didn’t get to our current pollution crisis through one person’s actions. For example, the floating plastic trash island in the Pacific Ocean is due to the collective actions of everyone living in the countries around the Pacific Ocean.

GLOBAL CRISIS

The solution to our pollution crisis is a global and community effort. That’s why I’m calling on my neighbors in Mount Vernon to set some time aside this week to participate in one of our events, or just be mindful of your actions. At least for this week, forget about plastic bags and try taking a cloth bag to the supermarket.

1 LITTLE ACTION CAN CHANGE THE WORLD. A thousand tiny actions can make a difference. And that difference is a cleaner world for our children and grandchildren.