Tomorrow Begins in the East—and with a happy, healthy Earth!
Please be informed, Warrior members of the UE community, that this Monday, April 22, 2024, marks the 54th celebration of Earth Day.
While the celebration began in the USA on this date in 1970, it has long had a ripple effect across the globe, given the complexity of environmental concerns besetting the one and only planet we call home.
The specific 54th Earth Day theme is “Planet vs. Plastics”. A press release on the subject states that “To achieve [the global target of] a 60% reduction [in plastic production] by 2040, EarthDay.org’s goals are: (1) promoting widespread public awareness of the damage done by plastic to human, animal, and all biodiversity’s health and demanding more research be conducted on its health implications, including the release of any and all information regarding its effects to the public; (2) rapidly phasing out all single-use plastics by 2030 and achieving this phase out commitment in the United Nations Treaty on Plastic Pollution in 2024; (3) demanding policies ending the scourge of fast fashion and the vast amount of plastic it produces and uses; and (4) investing in innovative technologies and materials to build a plastic-free world.”
Further on that, “The word environment means what surrounds you. Now plastics do more than surround us; we have become the product itself—it flows through our bloodstream, adheres to our internal organs, and carries with it heavy metals known to cause cancer and disease. Now this once-thought amazing and useful product has become something else, and our health and that of all other living creatures hangs in the balance,” said EarthDay.org President Kathleen Rogers. “The Planet vs. Plastics campaign is a call to arms, a demand that we act now to end the scourge of plastics and safeguard the health of every living being upon our planet.”
That said, no matter who we are in UE and in the world, we can do our part in helping to save the Earth from further degradation in ways big and small.
On campus and beyond, we can start by not littering the grounds, walkways, rooms or any other surface, making sure that all of our trash go into the waste bins. We can also forgo the use of plastic straws, plastic utensils and containers or single-use plastic bags, and bring our own water in reusable, non-plastic bottles.
At home, we can do away with burning dead leaves and any trash, segregating plastic waste and turning these over to upcycling companies, and possibly composting our food waste.
Anywhere we use electricity, we can help save on costly energy by reducing our lighting and ventilation to only when they are needed or when we are actively on hand to use such facilities.
Online, we can delete email messages that need not be saved (doing so will help save on energy needed to keep email servers going), and go for pro-environment search engines such as Ecosia and Ocean Hero.
And we can learn of more ways to keep the Earth intact by reading up on many online resources or at the reference sections of the Department of Libraries in UE Manila and UE Caloocan.
So let us help save the Earth for countless generations of future Warriors the world over!
[January 2024 photos taken in UE Caloocan and UE Manila by Warrior CFAD graduate James Patrick P. Trinidad; thank you to the participating UE Elementary Caloocan pupils, and their parents or guardians, and the participating UE SHS Manila students!]
#EarthDay2024
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#LetYourTomorrowBeginintheEast