On April 22nd billions of people around the world celebrate our planet. Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 in America when activist college students wanted to bring attention to environmental issues, and became a worldwide holiday by 1990.. Even though in America we call it Earth day, other countries call itInternational Mother Earth Day. Thisday brings light to important issues regarding the planet such as pollution and deforestation. Some things that people do to celebrate Earth Day are planting trees or picking up trash. On this day Sandpoint High School’s resource officer, Ryan Root, can be found recycling and disposing of waste properly to keep the ocean clean.  So what can SHS students do to celebrate earth day? Sophomore Threnody Hammond said “I will be celebrating this year by spending time in my garden.” While Senior Blake Sherril said “I will be picking up trash around my house and cleaning up my yard.” Sophomore Titus Tucker talked about his family tradition every Earth Day, “every Earth Day my family does spring yard work and spring cleaning.” Freshmen Aidan Offer and Emilio Hernandez are going to play basketball and clean up all the trash and waste around the court.

 The most common way to celebrate is by planting a tree. Earth Day Network has committed to planting a tree for every person on earth this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth day. They will be planting a total of 7.9 billion trees! So how can SHS students help the community on earth day this year? The teen center program at the local bowling alley will be taking kids around Sandpoint to pick up trash after school on earth day. The teen center has done this for years and it is a great opportunity to spend time outside and meet new people while giving back to the community. Other things that the Earth Day Network are working on is improving climate and environmental literacy, ending plastic pollution,

conservation and reservation, food and environment and raising awareness for climate change. Climate and environmental literacy is a program that teaches students about climate change and helps them to develop the skills to resolve the climate crisis we are facing. The end plastic pollution program focuses on finding new ways to reduce plastic use and teaches people how much harm plastic waste is leaving on the environment and marine life. Another program Earth Day Network is offering is the conservation and reservation program. This program is all about educating people on how to keep our oceans and wildlife safe.  This program is very important because ocean animal extinct rates are higher than ever in 2022. The food and environment program focuses on working to shrink your carbon footprint and educating people about regenerative agriculture.  Due to over farming and mass production we are losing soil 10 times faster than it is replenished. Last but not least is the climate change program. Human activity is causing our planet to warm at an alarming rate. There are many groups that you can join to help stop climate change.One group is “women and the green economy”, their mission is to help make a transition away from using fossil fuels and encourage women leadership. “Artists for the Earth” is also a group you could join. Members of this group make art in public places to spread awareness about climate change.

Information provided by Earthday.org