April 22nd is Earth Day! Every year, people around the globe gather around to celebrate the Earth. Earth Day is incredibly important—since its conception, important environmental legislation and agreements have been passed that have a commitment to conservation and saving the planet. We are very fortunate, as humans, to experience all of the beauties Mother Earth has to offer.
To thank Mother Earth, we wanted to write a post about the history of Earth Day, how you can participate, and how CONQUERing appreciates the Earth through our designs and programs.
How Did Earth Day Start?
Earth Day became a holiday a little over 50 years ago. According to earthday.org, the idea of Earth Day came from Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin. He was concerned about the state of the environment and a 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, California was the tipping point.
Senator Nelson joined forces with Denis Hayes, a young activist, to organize campus "teach-ins" about the environment. The date April 22nd was chosen because it fell between spring break and final exams for college students. The campus events were so successful that it was decided the next year they would expand their reach nationwide.
The "teach-ins" were renamed to "Earth Day", and in 1970, the first ever Earth Day was celebrated. Around 20 million Americans participated in protests and speeches to learn more about protecting and appreciating the environment. The very first Earth Day led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Earth Day eventually went global in the 1990s.
Why is Earth Day Important?
Celebrations of Earth Day over the past 50+ years have led to some incredibly important milestones in the environmental protection movement.
The Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts were all passed because of Earth Day. Earth Day going global also led to worldwide environmental successes. The Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2016 and global leaders chose April 22nd as the day they would all come together to make the agreement.
Earth Day also has a focus on education. It is the reason that climate literacy is a core component of school curriculums across the globe. It also sparked National Civic Education programs where students across the country are given challenging, yet solvable, year-long local environmental projects.
For a full list of successes that have come from Earth Day celebrations in the last 50 years, check out this page.
How Can You Celebrate Earth Day?
Now that you know a little bit more about Earth Day, let's talk about a few ways that you can celebrate:
- Connect with local organizations. A great way to celebrate the holiday is checking if there are any local environmental organizations putting together events in your community. There might be talks you can attend, trash clean-ups, or other volunteer opportunities that you can participate in.
- Plan your own celebration. You could plant a tree, conduct research on climate change, or go through things you've been wanting to get rid of and donate them to local charities. If you have extra finances, you could also donate money to local, national, and global conservation organizations to help fund their environmental protection efforts.
- Plan an event with your friends. Finally, you could gather friends and community members to organize your own Earth Day event. You can do a community-wide clean-up, put together forums where young activists can share concerns facing their generation, or you could create your own community garden!
For more ideas on how to celebrate Earth Day, check out suggestions from The Nature Conservancy.
How a Small Fidget Jewelry Business Celebrates Earth Day
It might not seem obvious that a fidget ring business would have any ties to Earth Day. However, our brand owes a lot to Mother Earth!
An entire category of fidget jewelry we offer is based on crystal healing. We offer crystal elements to put in ring, necklace, bracelet, and earring bases. We have blog posts dedicated to the healing properties, chakra alignments, and zodiac associations of each crystal we offer. We even have a comprehensive guide to crystal healing. Our crystals are all natural, coming directly from the Earth. Our most popular crystals are:
| Amethyst | Gray Shell | Moss Agate | Rose Quartz | Onyx |
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Besides our products, we do donate to a climate organizations through our CONQUERCares program. 5% of our profits that we donate to various organizations goes to charity:water. Charity:water is a non-profit whose mission is to bring clean and safe water to people in developing countries.
Finally, through our Make Waves program, we have recognized a couple young changemakers that are committed to climate activism. First, we have Cash Daniels (@theconservationkid), who has worked to remove tens of thousands of pounds of trash from the Tennessee River. Second, we have Khloe Thompson (@khloekares), who works to install water pumps and bathroom facilities in Ghana schools that don't have access to clean water.
Happy Earth Day
We hope that this post inspired you to participate in Earth Day activities near you. Keep in mind, you don't just have to volunteer or engage in environmental work on Earth Day. It is vital that year-round we all make a commitment to conserving our planet.
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