Earth Day--2018

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Sustainability
Edward Hessler

Today is Earth Day.

The first was in 1970, 20 million celebrants. This year is # 48.

The focus of the Earth Day Network is on plastics and there you can find information about them and decide on how you can reduce your plastic footprint. They are everywhere, a remarkable invention that came with a bite.

Ron Meador's lede on Earth Day in MinnPost caught my attention, an article about products with a green theme but are not what they seem. He wrote,

It would be better to cut consumption, period.

If you are interested you can read his full comments on recent product-pitches that have come his way.

To these I add five facts from the Brookings Institution that caught their policy eye. The five are about water use, nations and ocean policies on oceans, U. S. and oil production, a surprising relationship between natural disasters on the education of adolescent girls around the globe, and wildlife extinction rates.

The good, the bad and the ugly.

Jane Yolen has written a lovely poem in a collection of poems for the younger set about and for this day. It is a great poem to roll around and off your tongue. Here you can read about her and her work.

PS--Another way to think of Earth Day 2018 is to celebrate and take action on November 6, Election Day. And between now and then to become informed on environmental positions of candidates and include this in calculations about how to vote.