Whether celebrating Earth Day, Earth Week, Earth Month, or Earth Every Day, the time has arrived!
This week, the world celebrates 50 years of global awareness of the ever-challenging issues affecting the environment while, at the same time, faces an unknown and possibly unprecedented health crisis.
Wednesday, April 22 is Earth Day 2020 and the perfect opportunity to take a walk, breathe in the fresh air, take notice of the emerging wildflowers, clean up some litter, plant a tree or just be outside and smile!
Frisco ISD has partnered with The City of Frisco this year in support of the community by sharing optional activities that families and students can participate in during Earth Month. With everyone working together the community is strengthened and able to thrive. This strong sense of community is especially meaningful at this time with families being urged to stay at home while focusing on positive activities.
With this initiative, each week focuses on a theme to explore, three challenges, one lesson for a family or student, and extra resources.
- Week 1: Trash. Throwing less away is definitely more.
- Week 2: Food. How can we reduce our food-related waste?
- Week 3: Water. Where does it come from?
- Week 4: Energy. Reduce to Recharge.
With families encouraged to stay home at this time the City is experiencing more trash and energy use, and in turn, the District is proud to share with the community ideas on how to contribute and celebrate small wins.
For most folks participating in celebrating Earth Week can include turning off the lights, fixing a leak, visiting a local farmer’s market, or planting a vegetable (garden). Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
Every little effort counts.
Earth Day is a global event first organized in 1970 with the intention of focusing on the urgency of environmental issues and protection. By selecting particular themes each year, the organizers hoped to attract the attention of the public, to inspire passion in solving the challenges facing the planet, and to put environmental concerns in front of everyone.
The goal was to flood the world with hope, optimism, and action.
Climate action is the theme for 2020. Today there are millions of global citizens in more than 190 countries that celebrate Earth Day, even extending into Earth Month and Earth Week, with communities everywhere offering ways to make improvements in daily lives that impact individual environmental footprints.
Earth Day is a little different this year.
There will be a slightly different look to Earth Day 2020 due to the Coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic gripping the world. The air has cleared and is less polluted because fewer planes, trains, and automobiles are in use and factories and industries are closed.
There will be significantly less trash created from sporting events and concerts, along with energy saved from those same gatherings that are canceled or postponed as global citizens stay near home and practice social distancing.
Less garbage will float out to sea because many of the beaches are closed, and fish might even be visible in that clearer water. And hopefully, this cleaner earth will be remembered, even longed for and sought after, once the world goes back to life as usual.
When calling for awareness, action, hope, and optimism for the planet’s environmental health, it seems imperative, at least to this writer, to include gratitude, respect, and love. The entire global community seems to appreciate this special connection.
Breathing in sweet air, feeling raindrops, and experiencing an amazing fiery sunset can bring joy to the spirit that cannot be explained and should not be ignored. Earth Day’s message for some is political, and for others, it might be business. For many, it’s a call to rally and protest.
For most, however, it’s purely personal. Earth is a gift to be cherished, protected and preserved for those souls who will follow.
Enjoy Earth Day, Frisco! How will you celebrate?
