Earth Day 2024: Origins, Theme, and Celebration Ideas

By Natasha LeNeave

Earth day is a global observance that is dedicated to bringing environmental awareness and action. Let’s take a quick dive into the origins, explore the theme for this year, and discover ways that we can celebrate this holiday and our beautiful planet.

Photo Courtesy of CEC

Earth Day is celebrated each year on April 22nd. It was created to mark the anniversary of the modern environmental movement in 1907. The idea of this was started by Gaylord Nelson, a junior senator from Wisconsin. He had grown concerned about our planet and how the United States had been deteriorating. His concern continued growing and after a massive oil spill in 1969, he decided that he wanted to do something about it and make a change.

Photo Courtesy of EarthDay.Org

He went on to recruit a young activist, Denis Hayes, to speak in front of students at a college campus. They chose April 22 to do that speech. After they realized the potential that Earth Day could have, they began building a staff and promoting it.

Photo Courtesy of EarthDay.Org

Every year, Earth Day has a new theme. For 2024, the theme is Planet vs. Plastic. EARTHDAY.ORG has a goal to inspire a 60% reduction of all plastic production by 2024. This theme aims to bring awareness and ignite conversations towards carbon footprint reduction, climate change, and sustainable development to encourage the greater population to take action in order to protect our environment.

“While being environmentally conscious is important all year long, Earth Day is an extra opportunity to do your part in keeping our planet happy and healthy.” -Krys’tal Griffin

Photo Courtesy of Joel Nelson

Here are some ways that you can step in and participate in Earth Day:

• Clean up your local environment
• Pull invasive plants (Reach out to your local environmental organization to learn what species are invasive to your area, and how to properly ID them.)
• Plant a tree
• Plant a pollinator garden
• Start growing your own food
• Teach your kids about recycling
• Go for a nature hike to appreciate the earth
• Brainstorm ways to save energy
• Put together “Seed Bombs”
• Donate to an environmental cause
• Start carpooling
• Use wildflowers and native plants
• Conserve water
• Let your voice be heard

Here are some environmentally sustainable swaps and practices that you can do to help our planet throughout the year:

• Dry your clothes outdoors when the weather permits
• Walk or bike places when possible
• Harvest rain water to reuse
• Set up a compost pile
• Switch to natural organic products
• Switch to reusable shopping bags and store them in your car
• Switch to reusable water bottles
• Switch to reusable paper towels
• Switch to paperless billing
• Shop smart
• Unsubscribe from paper catalogs
• Buy dryer balls

Photo Courtesy of CEC

Here is a fun little Earth Day Quiz! Scroll to the bottom to see the answers:

1. How much of the plastic that we discard every day is recycled?
2. What is one way to leave our soil and farmland in better shape than we found it?
3. How much time in nature allows the average person to feel an improvement in physical and mental well-being?
4. What do bees collect from flowers?
5. How much edible food is wasted?

Photo Courtesy of World Aviation

Remember that every day can be Earth Day. We share a remarkable planet, let’s protect, celebrate, and cherish it! I encourage you all to take action and pick an idea from the lists above to celebrate in this year’s Earth Day. With every person that takes action, we are so much closer to making our planet a better place for us and for future generations.

Photo Courtesy of Lomi

Earth Day Quiz Answers:

1. Only 9% of the plastic we discard every day is recycled. Most end up in landfills, where they may take 1,000 years to decompose and increase toxic waste in our water and soil.
2. Here are three ways to leave the soil as good as we found it: reduce tillage, use crop rotation practices and compost!
3. Only 120 minutes per week (or less than 20 minutes per day) can contribute to a measurable improvement in physical and mental well-being!
4. Bees collect both nectar and pollen from flowers to feed their colonies. The bees then move the pollen from plant to plant, which allows the plants to make new seeds. Neither would exist without the other.
5. About 25% of food is never eaten due to being less than perfect. Food waste is a massive issue as it wastes water, energy, land, labor, and financial capital. Find new ways to put food to use!