Celebrating Earth Day Virtually

Hope Farms, pictured here, is hosting a virtual Earth Day celebration, featuring cooking demos, gardening classes and more. (Photo: Recipe for Success Foundation)

Fifty years ago, 20 million Americans took to the streets to peacefully protest for environmental reform and to raise awareness about environmental issues. Groups that had been individually advocating for environmental regulations in response to oil spills, toxic dumps and the extinction of wildlife, united across political lines to make their concerns heard, marking the first Earth Day. Today, Earth Day is celebrated each year on April 22 in 192 countries and is widely considered the largest secular holiday in the world. 

Although the coronavirus pandemic has derailed many plans for Earth Day 2020 celebrations, environmental advocates are still committed to making this the biggest Earth Day celebration yet, albeit virtually. 

Here are some ways you can participate in commemorating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day this week: 

Attend a Virtual Earth Day Celebration 
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from this pandemic, it’s how to effectively use Zoom, Google Hangouts, Facebook Live and other video-chatting applications. Several organizations are using these types of technologies to turn their Earth Day Celebrations virtual. Here are some examples: 

• Galveston Bay Foundation is celebrating on Facebook Live from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday. The event will feature ideas on how to celebrate Earth Day at home, plus programming on actions that produce a healthy planet. Find out more here.  
• The fifth annual Recipe for Success Foundation Earth Day Festival at Hope Farms will be broadcast live on Facebook all day Wednesday! The event includes cooking demos, gardening classes, visits with farm animals, story time and more.   

Planting a tree is a great way to commemorate Earth Day. (Photo: Trees for Houston)

Plant a Tree
Trees serve several important environmental functions, including reducing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and helping purify the air. A fun way to celebrate Earth Day while getting outside is to plant a tree in your own backyard! Trees for Houston is donating free tree seedlings at Evelyn’s Park for you to take home and plant. Find out more about picking up your free tree seedling here.

Contribute to the Earth Challenge Database
The Earth Day Network, along with other collaborators, are launching the Earth Challenge Database, an accessible and transparent citizen science database portal. The portal allows anyone with a mobile device to contribute data points that will help scientists understand the global extent of plastic pollution. Simply download the Earth Challenge 2020 mobile application and start collecting data to contribute! 

Celebrate Earth Day at Home with NASA
NASA Space Center has created an entire toolkit with activities, videos and special programs to help you observe Earth Day at Home. Get started here.

Commit to Changes in Habits
Nonprofit Earth Day Initiative is launching the “Together We Can: Climate Action Campaign” designed to get everyone to make at least one important commitment to reduce their climate impact. Commitments range from turning vegetarian to replacing lightbulbs with LEDs. Make your commitment here. 

One way to celebrate Earth Day is by going to a plant-based diet for a day. You can substitute meats and dairy with extra produce like these veggies from Hope Farms. (Photo: Recipe for Success Foundation) 

Eat Green for the Day 
Bellaire High School student Ishani Shethia, who is passionate about environmental conservation, has several plans to celebrate Earth Day, including eating green for the day. Plant-based diets have a significantly lower environmental than meat-based ones, since livestock production contributes a large share of the world’s carbon emissions which in turn contribute to global warming. Being vegan for a day is a fun challenge to take on while at the same time reducing environmental impact! 

Create a Compost Bin 
Ishani also suggests creating a compost bin on Earth Day. Compost helps feed the soil, which in turn aids plant growth and can fuel a home-garden in your backyard! Composting, instead of throwing away, food scraps like coffee grounds, fruit scraps and vegetable waste also keeps these organic materials out of landfills. Find more on composting here and read this Buzz story on composting here.  

Plogging 
Go “plogging” – picking up litter while jogging – which benefits our community and ourselves. See more on this topic here.  

Editor’s note: Comment below with additional ideas on how to celebrate Earth Day this year.