Earth Day 2021

Throughout his term, former president Donald Trump made decisions that actively disregarded the environment in a time when the Earth was more in jeopardy from human actions than ever before. He started by leaving the Paris Climate Agreement and rolled back a number of executive orders enacted by Barack Obama to protect the environment in favor of activities such as mining, logging, and underwater seismic airgun blasting. Recognizing these as problems is the first step to a clean planet and it can start at the local level.

Students at UHS are aware of the Earth’s condition and that we need to act on it. Senior Theo Johnson says “I try to write to elected officials to ask them to vote for bills like Illinois’ Clean Energy Act, which, as the name indicates, would attempt to improve people’s economic conditions while transitioning the state away from fossil fuels.”

Earth Day can be used as a reminder that every action helps, such as using more environmentally friendly transportation. Or even better, larger actions, namely a full commitment “to reduce and eventually eliminate our consumption of single-use plastics” as senior Dimitri Glaros’s family has done.

However it is almost an American tradition at this point to get to Earth day, everyone shows how much they love the planet and move on, forgetting the environment is going to take more than a day to get back on track. As stated by Johnson, “if no one continues to act beyond Earth Day, I don’t think it has much impact.”

Although as individuals we can make a small difference, most of the responsibility falls on the government and businesses. The November election marked a huge step in the right direction for the Earth as Joe Biden took the presidential office. Biden’s budget includes a “$936 million “environmental justice initiative” that promises to “hold polluters accountable” (Romm, The Washington Post). Biden also recently held a climate summit involving world leaders representing 82% of worldwide carbon emissions. Both are massive improvements from our climate change denying previous president.

In the end, if you just can’t be bothered to stop buying bottled water, or bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store, don’t be too worried. Glaros summed it up better than anyone could –

“Let’s not make the mistake of foisting the responsibility for protecting the environment on everyday people. It’s the corporations, powerful interests, and the current economic and political structures that do the most damage. If harmful systems can be pressured to change, then individual behavior has a better chance of following.”

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/15-ways-trump-administration-impacted-environment

budget/https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/23/opinions/biden-success-climate-change-summit-sachs/index.html