Tag: environment

ICC 2024 breaks the Internet

Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com

It’s one of those good news, bad news kinda things. This year’s International Coastal Cleanup day was so popular that the CleanSwell app crashed. Oops. The app is run by the Ocean Conservatory group, and is used by people around the world to record how much trash is being removed from the world’s beaches. This is utilized throughout the year, but is especially busy during the annual coastal cleanup up day in September.

After not being able to record my results, I reached out to find out why. The response that came back was that so many people were trying to do the same thing, at the same time time; and so it overloaded the app. They fixed it, and I was able to record everything. However, can we just take a moment to acknowledge that it crashed because on that day, so many people cared about the Earth that they got up early on a Saturday, and went out to clean up other people’s trash? The only thing better would be if someone hadn’t left it out in the world, in the first place.

The early results show that almost 18.5 million people volunteered, and it resulted in over 383 million pounds of trash being removed from the oceans, and shorelines of the world.

If you missed out, don’t fret, you can still help by cleaning up, in and around, your house. Many local communities will be hosting a large item cleanup event in October. Check with your city officials, or your local waste management company for details.

Returning our attention to Earth Day

LEGO recycling truck recently scene at a local Target store. Picture by Salena Wakim, do not reuse, duplicate, or alter without permission and credit

With all that is going on in the world these days, one might be forgiven for letting Earth Day slip their mind this year. Sadly, many will probably overlook it entirely, but now we should be revisiting the importance of this day more than ever. It’s time we returned out attention to Earth Day.

I won’t list all the eco catastrophies we’ve had in the last 12 months. For one thing you’ve heard it all before, and for another, unfortunately there are so many the list really wouldn’t fit in this space. Suffice it to say, there’s been a lot, and as such, there’s even more work to do to fix the situation. Despite the heavy need, there’s still so many other problems right now, that eco awareness is both higher than it’s been for a while, and yet equally not being acknowledged in everyday activities on a large scale.

Increasing awareness amongst all the generations is key to fighting this problem, but that is easier said than done. Various organizations and businesses have noticed though, and are wading in to help. This includes companies like Kleenex issuing a special ‘National Parks’ themed packaging line, Disney releasing their Earth Day centric reusable bag line, and LEGO putting out a Recycling Truck builder kit (see image above).

The semiannual Drug Take Back Day will take place on Saturday 4/27, just at the tail end of Earth Week, in an attempt to prevent not only drug misuse, but also to prevent unwanted drugs from ending up in our waterways. The EPA has a variety of online resources to help you teach your children about the importance of the day as well. There’s also some free Earth Day templates for you to use on Instagram, to help promote Earth Day awareness. Many private citizens will be out doing beach, forest, and park cleanups this week too. I know it might seem like the message is getting buried under the avalanche of bad news coming at us from so many directions, but it’s important that you remember you’re not alone. Others do care, and we all need each other to pitch n and help, if we’re going to succeed in making it better. The UN just put out a statement saying that we only have approx two years left to really mitigate any future to climate related problems.

So, regardless if you celebrate by attending an event, working on spreading Earth Day awareness, or by taking stock of your own eco street cred, the important thing is that you do in fact celebrate it, and pitch in.

Happy Earth Day Everyone.