Junior Hannah Conner recycles plastic bottles to help protect the environment. Earth Day was started in 1970 to help raise awareness for the earth.
By Ridhi Patel
Apr. 22, known as Earth Day, started the modern environment movement. According to teacher.scholastic.com, Earth Day was found by Wisconsin Senator, Gaylord Nelson in 1970. The earth day movement started because of a major oil spill that happen in Santa Barbara. His goal was to force the environmental issues on the national agenda.
Hoping to convince President Kennedy, Nelson went to Washington D.C. to talk to him about the environmental issue. Before meeting the president he met Attorney General Robert Kennedy who thought the topic was a important issue. Later the president heard about Nelson’s plan to save the environment and started to make plans to help.
In Sept. 1963 Kennedy did a conservation tour in 11 states in five days. Even though the presidents tour was not successful in influencing people , Nelson decided he was not going to give up.
On Sept. 1969, Nelson announced that he would demonstrate a nationwide grassroot event for the environment for who ever wanted to attend. More than 20 million people and thousands of school and communities participated in Nelson’s demonstration, which took place on Apr. 22, 1970. People worldwide took notice about the environmental issues after the event.
The UN secretary-general singed a proclamation on Mar. 21, 1971 that established Earth Day as a international holiday. So people worldwide celebrate Earth Day on Apr. 22 by doing things that help the earth.
“Earth day can help people realize that saving the environment is a good thing,” junior Hannah Conner said.
The ecology club helps the schools become better for the environment by recycling papers, bottle, and cans. They have boxes in each classroom where teachers and students can recycle.
“You should recycle and conserve energy every day so the planet will be a better place,” Conner said.
Busola Olanrewaju • Jun 1, 2012 at 5:38 am
The state of the environment should be very important to everyone. The more care we put into preserving we as a society will be able to benefit from it more. I think it’s great that people are trying to pay it forward by making sure our surroundings are clean. Earth Day is a positive day and I hope people don’t lose sight of it.
Sarah Beth Howard • May 26, 2012 at 5:25 pm
As a dedicated recycler I agree that this issue is an important one. It is a great way to raise awareness and it also allows teachers to take a lesson from the classroom and put it into the real world. After all, the main goal of school is to get the students to think for themselves and apply what they learned to the world. This shows that the effort is not all for nothing. People do care and will continue this tradition. Also, I don’t often comment on the language content on articles, but this one was rampant with errors. I had trouble reading it due to this. Most of the time I would not comment on it, but its sacrificing the reader’s understanding. And that is not what anyone wants of their articles.
Matthew Schneck • May 23, 2012 at 5:14 pm
We are the next generation of leaders that are going to run this country. This article again supports the argument that more students need to rise up and support conservation. The best defense against any sort of threat is knowledge, and in this case, education about conservation can be the key to success. It is good to see how TRN is working to make America’s future brighter.
Rachel Pugh • May 23, 2012 at 5:03 pm
I recently completed a PGTV opening promoting Earth Day, so I was pleased to see an article support it as well. Conservation and awareness are essential to the advancement of our planet, and I think that its crucial that the younger generations be educated. I would have loved to see this article expanded to include more local opportunities to participate in Earth Day.
John Shumar • May 23, 2012 at 4:48 pm
I learned from reading this article, which was very informative about how Earth Day came to be. I did not know that a Senator initiated the event, and I found in interesting that it garnered attention from the President. I am proud that we have students in our high school who care enough to use their own time in promoting these things.
Stephen Brockwell • May 23, 2012 at 4:27 pm
I am happy to see an article that shows student involvement in Earth Day activities. Preserving the environment is important in the modern world, and it is great to see students making their own contributions to the effort.
Megan Jonson • May 22, 2012 at 6:41 pm
Every year in school celebrating Earth day is advertised and everyone know it as “save the Earth day”. I love how this article went in depth with how it got started and the original purpose. It sounds so sad that the people of America did not respond better during the President’s awareness tour. More people need to be educated on this topic.