Every April 22, we celebrate Earth Day. Given the mission of MLRA, it should be no surprise that we support this celebratory event every year. After all, you could make the case that we participate in Earth Day every day.
A little history is in order. Earth Day started in April 1970 with the idea of protecting the environment. Senator Gaylord Nelson founded the day because he recognized that we had no legislation protecting the environment. That’s right. There was no EPA, no Clean Air Act, and no Clean Water Act.
Nelson realized that his idea needed a grassroots effort to galvanize Americans to draw attention to the damage we were doing to our environment and ourselves. The result was creating Earth Day to draw supporters who favored a cleaner environment. Twenty million people across the country demonstrated on Earth Day and by December 1970, Congress authorized the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
A modest beginning, created by a politician with a noble idea, resulted in significant and needed changes to protecting our environment and its citizens.
On Earth Day this year, we should ask ourselves if we are doing what we can. When we all pitch in — literally — it makes a difference, whether we recycle plastic bags, properly dispose of batteries and everything else.
Also, don’t forget to properly dispose of your spent light bulbs. Today and everyday.
If you have an itch to do a little more, you should check out earthday.org
