Celebrate Earth Day 2024 With Ideas & Actions to Choose Our Planet vs. Plastics

When one is a gardener and landscape designer, as well as a passionate naturalist as I am, everyday is Earth Day. However, marking the day April 22 as the official Earth Day, is important.  This year’s theme is one that is particularly close to my passion, as I hope it is yours: “Planet vs. Plastics.”

Read on to learn about the dangers of plastics and what we can do to safeguard ourselves and our planet. Now it’s personal… 

For decades, I decried the indiscriminate use of plastics ~ in deep opposition to the advice given in 1967’s The Graduate film, “There’s a great a great future in plastics.” 😡 In fact, it’s been rotten for all of us.  “Plastics in one form or another have contaminated our soil, our air and our water,” said Kathleen Rogers, the President of EARTHDAY.ORG. “Plastics are in our food chain and by default, inside all of us.” 

If that’s not a Yikes moment for us and those we love…

“Plastics are in our food chain and by default, inside all of us, and we are inhaling them in from the air we breathe. It’s important that the public knows this – and that we bring this crucial issue to the forefront of consumers’ minds,” continued Rogers. 

Babies seem the most at risk with evidence microplastics can interrupt maternal-fetal communication and potentially damage DNA. Reports have linked microplastics to autism and other endocrine disruption issues which can amongst other things manifest as early onset puberty, as well as association with some cancers, including in the prostate gland of fetuses.

Earth Day is a reminder of the importance of environmental conservation and sustainability, encouraging us to come together and take action for a healthier planet and brighter future.

You can put a pin in Earth Day, marking it as both a reminder and personal commitment to our ecology ~ to our love for plants, birds, animals, soil, oceans, trees, and ecology. It touches everything and there is just as much emphasis on the collective, global observance.

This year, the Earth Day focus is “Plants vs. Plastics.” The goal is 60% plastic reduction by 2040.

Can we do it?

Earth Day, the world’s largest environmental movement in the world.

I have been following the Earth Day organization and its efforts from its early days; not long after they launched in 1970. At that time, the effort was an answer to what was termed a “Crisis of Survival.” Reportedly, ten percent of the US population marched to demonstrate the impact of industrial development!  

I thought the effort was an, ahem, natural evolution. Meaning that once folks learned how bad pollutants and environmental destruction was, the solution would be within reach.  After all, who wanted to eat contaminated food or breathe bad air or swim in fouled, poisoned waters.  We were smarter and, collectively, we’d solve this crisis. 

And yet, here we are, 53 years later. Do you think we are better off or has the crisis deepened?

You can read on the Earth Day website all about how the issues that affect our global environment have resonated and begun to influence how key industries manage their part ~ their vital role and impact.  

I have written in the past about how many industries are playing a significant role in changing how they do business in order to benefit the planet, their supply chain partners, and their customers.  

The interior design world has increasingly changed, with their Sustainable Furnishings Council leading the designers and makers efforts at sustainability and repurposing products.  After all, antiques and vintage are prized design elements 🙂. and 

The Fashion Industry has recognized the role it plays in a sustainable planet. Recently, The New York Botanical Garden’s annual Orchid Show, “Florals in Botanicals , featured three runway stars with a commitment to upcycling materials. In particular, I very much admired Oliva Cheng’s Dauphinette fashions with her use of preserved botanicals and repurposed elements. 

The Geneva Environment Network tallies up the cost of producing clothes and the damage to the environment as well as the waste ~ folks buy so many garments and then toss them after a very short time… (When I worked in fashion, a key element of quality was how long a garment lasted. At Bergdorf’s a woman returned a sweater because it didn’t wear well/last. It was more than 10 years old.  She wasn’t an outlier.  

Today, the equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second;  

Approximately 60% of all materials used by the fashion industry are made from plastic; 

and the fashion industry is responsible for 8-10% of humanity’s carbon emissions – more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. 

A few years ago, Stella McCartney unveiled a prototype corset and trousers in Mylo, a lab-grown leather-like material made of mycelium – the root structure of mushrooms – developed by Bolt Threads in Silicon Valley. “ 

Earth Day recommends that we reject “Fast Fashion,” among other actionables. 

Food 

Sigh… Food and its production cuts a very wide swath and touches so many points in this arena: animals, farming, restaurant design, trucking food from its source to consumers, packaging and more.  I can’t cover all this here but let’s just look at a few things.

The food industry acknowledges that 25-30% of greenhouse gas emissions come from food. If food waste were a country it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China.

Not to bite the hand that feeds us (!) but there needed to be some real change. 

There has been a marked effort to embrace and serve more plant-based foods that are not so processed. 

Recent studies from The Nature Conservancy point to a regenerative, nature-positive food system. 

“The long-term impacts of climate change on crop production, concerns related to water scarcity and quality, and the threat of land degradation are top of mind for these business leaders—even more than the clear and present risks of pandemics and disease. As one of the sectors most reliant on nature—and demanding of its services—this recognition is encouraging and represents an opportunity for immediate progress.

Be a Climate Innovator

You can plant your own edible garden.  You can grow a pollinator garden. 

What else can you do? 

Earth Day recommends a few ideas: 

• Install solar panels and get a rebate

• Use LED light bulbs

• Seal air and water leaks in your home or apartment

• Use their Plastics Calculator to help guide you and end plastic pollution

• Enhance your green space with a native plant garden 

I hope we can dial back the rhetoric and instead, encourage and celebrate those Climate Innovators who make a difference.  Even if that difference appears to be “glacial” (no pun intended), it’s a step in the right direction. 

Let’s not keep doing the same ol’ same ol.’ 

Think big. Think opportunity. Think innovation. It’s exciting to explore new ways of creating. 

Putting the Personal into the Planet or ~  You’ve Got the Whole World in Your Hands

It’s understandable that most of us feel rather helpless in terms of making any real impact towards making a difference in the environment. And if you’re like me, marching and demonstrating just isn’t an option.  However, there are still plenty of ways you can invest in the planet.  

• Donating real money to causes and organizations is top of the list! 

• Seed Swap ~ join a seed swap group or launch one. 

• Eat and Shop Local ~ You can work with local schools to expand consumption of local and regional produce and food products. I advocate for bringing back true cafeterias in schools. When I grew up, we benefited from lunch-room mothers (yes, almost all were ladies) who cooked real food and served it with a smile.  You can help promote an economically-viable, environmentally-sustainable, efficient, and equitable local food system

• Do as Bill and I did recently ~ when not juicing from fresh fruit, purchase juice ~ preferably organic ~ in glass bottles. 

• Join a beach or woodland clean up near you

• Plant a Garden  

If you don’t have a yard, work with a school garden, a community garden, or a local historical society ~ they are all usually looking for volunteers.  You can also plant window boxes, use containers, pots, your kitchen countertops, and more. You can grow herbs, vegetables, and edible flowers!  

Did you know that the green spaces in Community Gardens ~ “improve mental health and foster community while making space for green infrastructure like rainwater harvesting systems that prevent heavy rain from overflowing sewers and wastewater treatment plants?”  So says, NYC Grows. 

Gardens and plants attract birds. 

• Protect our Birds 

You can reference the National Audubon Society’s database to learn what native plants will attract more birds to your home.  Bill and I just Love watching the birds ~ it’s like theater.

• Same for the Pollinators 

Who doesn’t love Butterflies and Bees?  Well, there’s a lot more to love. We belong to the Xerces Society. If you’re not familiar with them, you may want to look into supporting The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.  It’s an international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats. Their key program areas are: pollinator conservation, endangered species conservation, and reducing pesticide use and impacts.

• Plant Trees

Need I say more?  We need trees. Trees. Trees. Trees. Yet, all too often I see the “power” or electrical companies cutting and carving trees into ungodly shapes while removing their precious limbs or cutting them down wholesale. This is often, shockingly, done without citizens’ approval. This is wrong. 

As I tell my audience who attend my garden talks, these companies need to invest in underground networks. Storms are too aggressive now to rely on the old way of providing power. Homeowners all have generators now. So we pay the utilities for a service that is in doubt when we need it most… 

Plus, another little known nugget is that they are supposed to be given their ability to operate in municipalities by bidding against competitors. But most often they are just given the contract.  We need to hold them responsible ~ to the citizens and to the environment. Stop cutting trees! 

Earth Day Activities 

EARTHDAY.ORG’s mission is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide. 

Growing out of the first Earth Day in 1970, EARTHDAY.ORG is the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement, working with more than 150,000 partners in over 192 countries to drive positive action for our planet. preserve and protect our health, our families, our livelihoods… together, we must Invest In Our Planet.

Here's a quick overview video on this year's theme:

The organization writes: “Because a green future is a prosperous future.

Today, Earth Day is widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world, marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behavior and create global, national and local policy changes.

We need to act (boldly), innovate (broadly), and implement (equitably). It’s going to take all of us. All in. Businesses, governments, and citizens — everyone accounted for, and everyone accountable. A partnership for the planet.

And while there is still time to solve the climate crisis, time to choose BOTH a prosperous and sustainable future, and time to restore nature and build a healthy planet for our children and their children.”

Check out their site for lots of fun, family activities. 

In addition, the World Sustainability Organization (WSO) invites everyone to become agents of change and join the sustainability movement. The organization advocates businesses to produce sustainably, consume responsibly and support conservation projects to restore our planet. Let’s celebrate Earth Day by taking action into our own hands. We love and preserve ecosystems by certifying sustainable agriculture and farming.

Friend of the Earth is an international certification program for products from sustainable agriculture and farming.

Without a doubt, this subject is dear to my heart. And I hope it captures your heart and moves you to action, as well.