Forty years ago, Americans across the nation took a promise for cleaner air, safer water and to preserve our planets natural resources. Tomorrow over 200 million Americans and over 140 nations will come together to celebrate Earth Day.
Earth Day was founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson on April 22, 1970. In the early 60's he began to worry that the world was dirty and many of our plants and animals were dying. He wondered why people weren't trying to solve these problems so he began to write letters and travel around the country to express his concerns. Then he came up with the idea to dedicate one special day, environmental teach-in day, to educate everyone about the things that needed changing in our environment.
Gaylord Nelson's demonstration for the environmental teach-in day was planned to reach all organized colleges and universities. He chose this day in order to maximize participation on college campuses. This was the best day/week because it didn't fall during any school exams, spring breaks, didn't conflict with any national holiday such as Easter or Passover and it was later enough in the spring that the weather was decent. Once the idea caught fire, hundreds of people gathered together from all over and made a promise to help our environment and that's how Earth day came about.
Earth Day Events:
• Saturday 4/24 Huntington Family Earth Day Expo,
Huntington 9-1pm
• Saturday 4/24 Indian Island Park Earth Day Celebration, Riverhead 10-4pm
• Saturday 4/24 Seatuck Eco-Carnival, Islip 1:30-3pm
• Saturday & Sunday 4/24-4/25 Arbor Day Family Festival, Oyster Bay 10-5pm
• Sunday 4/25 Pedal for the Planet, Syosset 12-2pm
Earth Day Tips:
1. Reduce & Reuse
• Buy and use only what you need.
• Buy products with less packaging. It takes 500 years to break down plastic and most families throw away 88 pounds of plastic every year.
• Repair items as much as possible.
• Use cloth napkins or towels.
• Reuse it! Be creative as you look for new ways to reduce the amount household waste. Give cardboard tubes to pet hamsters or gerbils. Plant seeds in an egg carton. Make a flower pot out of a plastic ice cream tub.
2. Recycle
• Recycle paper (printer paper, newspapers, mail, etc.), plastic, glass bottles, cardboard, and aluminum cans. If your community doesn't collect at the curb, take them to a collection center.
• Donate extras to people you know or to charity instead of throwing them away.
• Compost food scraps, grass and other yard clippings, and dead plants.
• Recycle and buy-recycled.
• Dispose of car batteries, engine oil and tires properly at your town or drop off at local shops.
• Use NiCad rechargeable batteries instead of throwing away old batteries.
3. Shop green.
• Buy local and organic. Wild by Nature & Sweet Potatoes Organic Market in Huntington or Whole Foods in Jericho.
• Buy foods in season to reduce refrigeration and transportation costs.
4. Conserve energy.
•Take advantage of natural lighting. Change to energy saving light bulbs.
• Keep thermostats set low, 68 degrees.
• Turn off the lights when you leave the room. Install sensors or timers to turn lights on and off.
• When buying appliances, check for the EPA Energy Star rating.
• Eat more vegetables and grow them yourself, even if it's only a container garden. Livestock production requires enormous amounts of energy. Far more energy is put into animals per unit of food than for any plant crop. The main reason is that cattle consume 16 times as much grain as they produce as meat.
5. Don't waste water.
• Take short showers and shallow baths.
• Turn off the water while shaving, brushing, soaping, or shampooing.
• Repair leaky faucets, pipes, and toilets.
• Practice outdoor water conservation. Do not wash down driveways, streets or sidewalks.
• Buy products that are EPA Water Sense rated.
Remember every day is Earth Day. For additional information on events and things you can do to help our planet visit www.earthday.org and the Earth Day Network at www.network.earthday.net.
Rain Rich Going Green: Save water with our water conservation products. Including eco-friendly rotary nozzles, green controllers and timers, green weather sensors, eco-friendly rain sensors and more... We carry Hunter solar sync, Toro rain sensors and Rain Bird soil moisture sensors.
Additional suggestions & tips:
• Install Low Volume Drip Irrigation
• Landscape with natural indigenous plants
• Use grass seed to grow lawns that can adapt to our climate limiting water, fertilizer and pesticides
• Use edible plants in the landscape such as blueberries, fruit trees, spinach and kale.
• Use mulch in planting beds to conserve water and keep weeds down.
• Think twice before you use the product preen.
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