When I was a kid and in elementary school, our teachers and other adult figures made Earth Day a big deal. They stuck mostly to tell us that if we helped clean up trash around our playground, neighborhood, or anywhere else, that we were doing our part. For most of my young life, I actually believed that just picking up trash would be enough. Ah, to be young and naïve again.
However, as I’ve grown, I’ve come to learn and discover that it’s not just picking up trash that will help good ol’ Mother Earth. Rather, it’s more like taking shorter showers, so you don’t waste water, make sure to recycle, look for other green options that don’t cause pollutants to fill the air we breathe…the list goes on and on.
When I was looking for ideas on what to write about this week, I saw that this week was Earth Day. It immediately gave me flashbacks to when I was in Girl Scouts, and our troop would go to our elementary school and pick up trash. The troop leader wanted to instill in us the value of taking care of the planet for our generation and future generations to come. While she had good intentions, a troop of 10- and 11-year-old girls did not want to spend their free time cleaning up trash on a playground.
Now, as an adult, I see what she was trying to teach us. After all, hindsight is 20/20.
How Important Is Earth Day?
As I was looking into Earth Day, I found what appears to be the official website for Earth Day. It paints the picture of how globally important this day really is. A few of the topics on the website include the climate and environmental literacy, conservation and preservation, and plastic and pollution.
What I learned is that Earth Day isn’t just one idea on how to save or help the planet, but really a complicated and involved process. The most important takeaway is that this is not an overnight process either. Cleaning up our planet, minimizing and eventually eliminating our carbon footprint will take lots of work spread out over time.
The team with Albuquerque Plumbing Heating & Cooling does their part every day to help Mother Earth. Short showers, recycling, only driving when necessary (the pandemic helped a lot with that!), and turning off the lights when leaving a room are just some of the things we do around the home. Our company has green products that help this big blue ball that we call home. Every little bit helps.
If you’d like to see what you can do to help the planet, check out this website: https://www.earthday.org/