Earth Day 2010

Earth Day is THIS Thursday, April 22! If you're not already aware of the issue of Global Warming, maybe this year you can pretend to care.. at least a little bit! It really isn't that hard to recycle your cans and bottles instead of just throwing them away, and the few steps it may take to the recycling bin won't hurt you a bit! Recycling is good for the Earth, and the extra exercise you get for taking some inconvenient little steps will help you!

Maybe this year, instead of sitting at home griping about the Earth Day commercials running on TV all day, stepping outside to enjoy the sunshine and the wonderful springtime weather sweeping across the country may just bring a smile to your face! Hey, while you're outside, why not go plant a tree? Then you'll be able to say that the pollution in the air isn't your fault, that you're environmentally aware, etc. After all, you did plant a tree didn't you? I think not! Now, trees are some of the biggest contributors to reversing the damage being done by pollutants in the air, but they can't be expected to clean up the whole mess! And why not? Well, here's why not:

• A single adult tree can absorb an average of 48 lbs. of carbon dioxide a year and supply enough oxygen for two human beings.

As of 2005, there is an estimated 400 billion+ trees throughout the world, according to NASA. And that is a lot of trees! But, check this out:

• Each person in America is estimated to dump 2.3 tons of CO2 into the air every year!
• There is a ratio of about 61 trees to each person.

However, not all of these trees are located in the U.S. But, for argument's sake, let's say that all trees are located in the United States:

• Since there are over 300 million people in the United Sates, our estimated carbon output would end up being around 690 million tons every year.
  
• If all the world's trees were located in the U.S., we'd be covered!! We would have the freshest air in the entire world!
• But , if all of the trees in the world are in the U.S. , what would happen to other countries? Countries like China, Russia, India, and Japan that are some of the top contributors to global CO2 pollution? In fact, China alone is responsible for 21.5% of annual CO2 emissions worldwide! What would happen then?

Can you imagine the horrifying conditions that the rest of the world would be in if our imaginary situation was real? Try to think about the condition that the world is already in, and then clean up the U.S., and spread our emissions out to every other country in the world. Doesn't look good, does it? Even now, air pollution isn't a pretty thing.



Beijing after a rainy day (left), Beijing on a regular, sunny day (right)


This is only one example of air pollution in the world! Things can change, and you can help!
Go to www.earthday.net to find out what you can do to help out this Earth Day.
Personally, I think that every day should be Earth Day, but since that isn't the case, why not take a little time this Earth Day to help everyone around you? Little actions like recycling any paper, aluminum cans, or plastic bottles that you would usually throw away is an easy thing to do, and the service is often provided by your local waste management companies. It isn't reasonable to plant a tree every single day of the year, but maybe a tree every month, or every other month, whatever you can do! The economic recession that we are in does limit what we can do to benefit our environment, but it can only last for so long, while the damage being done to the Earth can end up being for generations and generations to come. I say, try to stop it while we can, because isn't that the right thing to do?


By Ninja