Honoring Earth Day's 50th Anniversary

Caleb Bradshaw, Nock Middle School, eighth grade

The celebration of Earth Day is in some ways similar to that of New Year’s Day. It is a way for people to reflect on their environmental habits from the past year and potentially improve upon them in the upcoming year.

The first time I heard about Earth Day was through social media. Social networking is such a powerful tool for addressing environmental issues.

Reaching out to younger generations like my own through social media can bring awareness to topics like climate change. It is important to realize that the Earth is something that we should take care of and protect. People might not realize it, but the future of our world and its health is up to us.

School systems need to be leaders in teaching kids what it means to be environmentally responsible. They have come up with great ways of exposing kids to more environmentally sustainable habits, such as Ride Your Bike or Walk to School Day, recycling, and more recently, composting.

Extending Earth Day over the full month of April is intended to expand our environmental awareness. Earth Month will provide ample time for all generations to practice sustainable living. It will also allow people to teach others how to conserve more efficiently so future generations can live on a happy and healthy Earth.

Olivia Skibbee, Newburyport High School, 10th grade

As time goes on, the treatment of our environment needs change. The impact that humans have brought upon the Earth needs to be recognized as much as possible before it’s too late for us to do anything about it. Earth Day and Month provide social awareness and environmental knowledge of how we can protect our planet, even in the simplest of ways.

There are countless issues globally that need our attention. Climate change, air and water pollution, deforestation, natural resource depletion, etc., cause significant environmental degradation.

Future generations cannot survive without bringing the consciousness of protecting the environment into their daily lives. Earth Day/Month is a way to recognize the hard work of older generations and keep the actions humanity needs to take from being forgotten. Even though Earth Day and Earth Month only come around once a year, that should be enough to remind people how important it is to take care of the place where we live every day.

I know technology has definitely had a huge impact on the well-being of our environment and will continue to do so, not always in the best ways. Technology has caused many disturbances in the environment, such as ecological disruption, global warming, water contamination, etc. It does also offer some benefits, such as finding ways to save water and energy, more efficient health technologies which can save wildlife and more.

However, I think that technology has done more harm than good to the environment, which will most likely get worse unless we do something about it and educate the future generations using Earth Day and Earth Month as a perfect time.

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This column was coordinated by ACES YOUTH CORPS member, Eleni Protopapas. To share any comments or questions, please send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com. To learn more about ACES and our Youth Leadership Initiative, please view our WEBSITE –  https://www.aces-alliance.org

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