10 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day Every Day

Apr 20, 2020

"Look closely at the present you are constructing: it should look like the future you are dreaming."
-Alice Walker

1. Eat Only Plant-Based Foods

Like heart disease is the number one killer of humans, animal agriculture is the number one killer of the planet. Fortunately, both can be prevented and reversed with a plant-based diet! There are hundreds of unique reasons to eat a plant-based diet just for the environment (and thousands more on top of that for ethical, health, and humanitarian reasons). However, the single greatest reason -- in my humble opinion -- is that animal agriculture is responsible for 51 percent of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, whereas all transportation combined is only 13 percent.[1, 2]

So, riding your bike to work or eating only local produce, while it does help, it's only a negligible amount. (That's why this is point #1: Because this is significantly more important than any of the other points on this list.) As the saying goes, it's like mopping up water on the floor when your sink is overflowing; yes, you're preventing the floor from being as wet as it would have been, but you're not addressing the main contributor to the floor's saturation.

If you're already vegan, encourage your friends, family, and colleagues to join you in a day of plant-based eating to help save the planet from the destruction of animal agriculture. Share with them the documentary Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret or the book Food Choice and Sustainability: Why Buying Local, Eating Less Meat, and Taking Baby Steps Won't Work by Dr. Richard Oppenlander. Also, check out more of my Environmentalism posts for more information.

*If you don't have time to watch the film, please see Cowspiracy's fact page, where they list and cite all the resources they used.

2. Don't wear animal products

Many people don't realize how the clothes they wear impact the environment. But the same agricultural practices used for food production, which makes animal agriculture the top contributor to the climate crisis, also apply to non-food farmed animals. Sheep used for wool, ducks and geese used for down, cows used for leather -- they all are factory farmed and are slaughtered when they are no longer profitable. But it's easy to switch to plant-based clothing! Try cotton, bamboo, linen, hemp, or even recycled plastic materials.

3. Make a switch to a zero-waste alternative

Zero-waste doesn't have to be as expensive and fancy as it looks on Instagram; it's all about reducing your dependence on disposable single-use products, and on plastic in particular. The main reason, though there are many, that plastic is the primary target is because plastic never goes away. Over time, yes, it breaks down, but it breaks down into microplastics, which are wreaking havoc on the aquatic ecosystem. And though plastic, theoretically, can be recycled, about 90 percent isn't, which is a huge contributor to why there's so much in the ocean (though 46 of all plastic in the ocean comes just from industrial fishing -- another reason to switch to a plant-based diet).[3] Even recycled plastic has a short shelf life, only able to be recycled a few times before it breaks down and is unusable. It's better to just avoid plastic altogether when possible.

This Earth Day, take that step towards a non-disposable world and make the switch to just one zero-waste alternative. Maybe you've wanted to swap out your plastic toothbrush for a bamboo one or have wanted to switch from bottles of shampoo and conditioner to bars instead. It could even be as simple as saving an old peanut butter jar and refilling it with bulk peanut butter from your local health food store.

*Check out "Easy Ways to Reduce Your Waste, Pt. 1" and "Is Fishing Worse Than Hunting?" to learn more about microplastics and "The Best & Worst of Zero-Waste" for more information on what swaps to try!

4. Take a Hike

We often trap ourselves indoors, preferring to binge the new Netflix show over breathing in fresh air. Get outside and experience the beauty of nature, spend time with your family, fur family, and friends. Of course, you could also try walking or riding a bike to work, school, the grocery store, or anywhere else (if possible) instead of driving. Not only would you help the environment out a little, but you'll also save money on gas. And you could use some of that saved money to invest in a zero-waste alternative, like reusable silicone Stasher bags instead of disposable plastic Ziploc bags.

*Check out "The Importance of Connecting with Nature" to learn more!

5. Support local business

Check out your local farmer's market for products you'd usually buy from the grocery store. One of the best parts about this is that the food is often not wrapped in plastic packaging, and even if it is, you can (sometimes) request the packaging be removed so the farmers can reuse it. Additionally, you know exactly who and where the food is coming from, so it hasn't been shipped across the country, or the world, to get to you. The food is always in-season, meaning that there are no hoops to jump through to grow it in an unnatural environment, requiring fewer resources from farm-to-table.

Finally, and probably most important to me personally, is that most of the food is grown organically. This means that no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides are used. Living on the Florida coast, seeing how basically every single house has these little plastic pesticide pickets outside absolutely drives me insane. Not only do these toxic chemicals kill all the "pests" on the ground and in the soil that are essential members of the ecosystem, but they filter down through the dirt, infecting the earth and groundwater. Then, every time the sprinklers run, every time it rains, the pesticides on the surface slide down the streets and into storm drains, which dump out into the nearest body of water: the ocean. But this is still a problem for landlocked states and countries because these chemicals dump into lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers, eventually making their way out into the ocean as well. (This issue is one of the reasons why #6, below, is of particular importance.)

Be warned, however, that local animal products are often, in fact, worse for the environment than the factory-farmed ones you'd get at the store. Though they hide behind greenwashed terms like "grass-fed" or "free-range," it takes significantly more land and resources to "grow" animal products than plant products. Animals on these farms may live longer than those on factory farms, using more space than animals trapped inside a factory farm, drinking more water, eating more food (which requires both more land and water), and excreting more waste (and GHGs). Yet another reason to switch to a plant-based diet!

But it's not just produce that you can find locally. You can also find bread, pastries, art, home goods, clothes, jewelry, and so much more. My mom even found vegan sunscreen at her local farmer's market! You never know the amazing products you may discover, all handmade by local residents. Not shipped across the globe, made through slave labor, tested on animals, or any other nasty secrets you may be supporting when you buy from a megacorporation.

6. Start a humane garden

Many people want a perfectly manicured lawn, complete with bright, colorful flowers, trees, and shrubs. However, the majority of these plants aren't native to our environment, some even coming from continents away. They also need constant upkeep, using pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and tons of water to plant, grow, and maintain them. Instead, allow nature back into your yard by inviting native species, of both flora and fauna, into your garden.

I recognize that it's normal, easier, probably even cheaper, to just go to a store and buy the pretty flowers in pots instead of doing the research and taking the time to determine what kinds of plants will work best for your yard, accounting for rainfall, sun exposure, soil pH, and all the other important environmental factors needed to properly grow and maintain a more natural, native garden. However, as I said in the prior point, our dependence on synthetic materials and chemicals is destroying the natural environment. So, we have to make the choice if what's easier is worth the cost that the planet -- including wild animals that inhabit these contaminated environments -- pays for these actions.

*Please read The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife by Nancy Lawson or check out her website to learn more about fostering a safe garden for native species.

7. Create a homemade compost bin

Unfortunately, everything we toss into landfills stays there...forever. Because of the nature of our trash system, bags upon bags upon bags of garbage get tossed on top of each other, crammed into a hole in the earth. This means that the natural biodegradation process cannot be achieved because there is no sunlight or oxygen circulating. So all those crusts your mom cut off your sandwiches in elementary school 30 years ago are all still perfectly preserved in a plastic bag somewhere in the earth. If you want to avoid trashing all this perfectly usable food waste, you can try composting. (Even better, you can also compost other common materials, like paper, and natural fibers, like cotton.) While there are many outdoor and indoor composting systems available for sale, you can easily make one at home. It can be as simple as drilling some holes into a plastic tub!

8. Find an eco-friendly hobby

Being an environmentalist can seem boring, and, honestly, it can really bum you out sometimes when you think about how humanity is completely destroying literally everything. But instead of lamenting on the negatives, stay optimistic by finding ways to have fun while helping out the environment. You're probably already doing some things like this without even realizing it! Here are some ideas to get you started:

Bird-watching
Photography
Hiking/walking
Cycling/mountain biking
Volunteering for a local beach/community cleanup
Flower/leaf pressing
Gardening
Reading e-books, audiobooks, used books, or recycled paper books
Listening to podcasts
Thrifting

9. Support eco-friendly businesses

When shopping, try buying from companies that plant trees for every order, donate to charity a certain percentage of profits, or offset their carbon emissions. A popular company like this is Earth Hero. They offset all their carbon emissions from transporting products by "supporting reforestation projects," as they say on their website. While I'm not entirely sure of the legitimacy of these carbon-neutral organizations and how much planting some trees actually offsets carbon emissions (especially when accounting for all the other serious problems surrounding our dependence on non-renewable resources like coal and oil), it seems logical that it's better than doing nothing at all.

However, please be aware that just because the company is called Earth Hero doesn't necessarily mean that all the products they sell are good for the planet. For example, wool dryer balls are very trendy in the zero-waste community, but, like traditional agriculture, sheep farming for wool (and therefore also for meat, as the wool industry is the preface for sheep going into the meat industry) is incredibly destructive to the environment. They also sell plastic and plastic-packaged products, which, obviously, aren't very heroic for the earth. The kinds of products low-waste stores sell are more in the vein of reducing your dependence on single-use products, not on supporting vegan, cruelty-free, or even eco-conscious companies.

10. Repeat

Every day, repeat the steps that you can. Some of these are simple and require little effort on a daily basis, like keeping up your garden or buying from eco-friendly companies. Obviously, it's not realistic to make a zero-waste swap every day, but you could plan to make one switch every month. Within a year, that's twelve swaps, a huge accomplishment!