Earth Day will be celebrated by millions around the world today – Friday, April 22 marking the 52nd anniversary of the very first Earth Day celebrated in 1970. It is an annual celebration that honors the achievements of the environmental movement and raises awareness of the need to protect Earth’s natural resources for future generations.

The idea behind the day originated during the early 1960’s hippie era. That’s when Earth Day bloomed into a grass roots movement that resulted in the first official U.S. observance of Earth Day. Today, many cities extend Earth Day celebrations for an entire week to increase awareness of recycling and more energy efficient communities. Earth Day is the largest non-religious based holiday, with more than 500 million people taking part in 190 countries around the world.

The theme for Earth Day in 2022 is “INVEST IN OUR PLANET”, focusing on the effects of climate change on the planet and what efforts are being made in the real world to mitigate it. In keeping with the theme, this year’s focus will center on “accelerating solutions to combat our greatest threat, climate change, and to activate everyone – governments, citizens, and businesses – to do their part”.

Earth Day 2022 calls on all of us to free ourselves from unsustainable investments; support eco-conscious brands and products; and to use our own skills and voices to fight climate change. There are also several ways to celebrate at home or in your backyard using the concepts of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”.

If you are looking for ideas of things you could do as a family consider taking a weekend morning to clean up your neighborhood of discarded plastics, cans, and bottles as a personal cleanup project that will help the entire community. Or perform a household energy audit – Focus on electronic devices like laptops that are left on 24/7, which accounts for 5-10% of residential energy use per year. Turn these devices off when not in use and you can save an average $100 on your electric bill annually. It is also suggested to start in your own backyard, choose a good location for a compost pile. Start recycling coffee grounds, eggshells, and scraps of food to decompose and to ultimately enrich a garden for the upcoming growing season. It could also be fun to enlist your family to help build a bird feeder for the backyard or patio. There are many more ideas available online at www.earthday.org.

In only 50 years, Earth Day has evolved from a single day celebrating the environmental movement in the United States to a global network that empowers more than a billion people to better understand, protect, and improve the environment.