April is often a time reserved for celebrating Easter, but for the past 47 years, although less widely known, April is also a time for celebrating the environment, raising awareness for the issues that face it, and coming together to help solve them: celebrating World Earth Day.

So what is Earth Day?

Earth Day, celebrated every year on the 22nd of April since 1970, aims ‘to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide’, raising global awareness for the multitude of issues facing our environment today. Earth day is ‘the largest civic observance in the world’, with over one billion people celebrating the event every year –an increase of approximately 5000% since the first Earth Day in 1970, which was celebrated by 20 million people.

How can I get involved?

Whether you want to make a big difference or just do your part for the environment by making little changes to you daily life, there is a variety of ways you can get involved:

Turn off the lights when you leave the room – not only will you be able to reduce the cost of your electricity bill, but you will also avoid wasting electricity meaning and the fossil fuels which are burned to generate it. As a result, this will also reduce your carbon footprint, as less fossil fuels will need to be burned, meaning that a smaller amount of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere.

Plant a tree or donate to plant a tree – deforestation is a major culprit behind issues such as the increased greenhouse gas emissions (and consequently, climate change), and the endangerment and extinction of species. Simply planting a tree can help combat these issues for in the long term.

Use public transport, cycle or walk to work or school – this reduces the volume of greenhouse gas emissions from personal vehicles, reducing contributions to global warming and therefore climate change.

Donate to one of many environmental charities and organisations- you can donate to a wide range of charities, such as the WWF (which ‘works to protect wildlife and their habitats’), the Jane Goodall Institute (a rainforest-conservation organisation), and The Ocean Agency (whose mission is ‘to protect the ocean’ against issues including pollution, overfishing and acidification).

Eat less meat – rather surprisingly, animal agriculture (especially cattle farming) is one of the biggest causes of global warming, ‘generating one-fifth of man-made greenhouse gas emissions worldwide’, according to the official Earth Day website. So, not only can opting for fruit and vegetable alternatives improve your diet, but it can also reduce your carbon footprint.

To find out more about Earth Day and how you can get involved, visit the official Earth Day website: http://www.earthday.org/

Molly Lambert, Langley Park School for Girls