On April 22, the 51st anniversary of Earth Day, a worldwide commemoration to heighten awareness about the environment and motivate people to protect it, was celebrated. According to earthday.org, more than 1 billion people in 192 different countries participate in Earth Day activities, yet Ramaz only holds an assembly for the freshman about it. Every year Earth Day is given a theme such as: climation action, protecting our species, and ending plastic pollution. This year’s theme is “Restore our Earth”. This is a very important theme to teach around the world to all types of individuals and especially students, since we are the next generation of leaders. Ramaz should definitely have an assembly for the entire school to celebrate Earth Day. 

Earth Day is the day to raise awareness and what better way to do that than having an assembly. This year’s Earth Day is about restoring our world’s ecosystem by thinking of new ideas on how to create green technologies. To create this environmental awareness, we should have some sort of assembly that all grades can attend to at school to educate students. We must teach students about the importance of protecting our planet. Many students know about serious environmental issues the world is facing but not many know what needs to be done to stop these issues. Not only should we educate freshmen but sophomore, juniors, and seniors as well in order to continue the inspiration and motivation in our students. It is not enough to only commemorate Earth Day for one year of the four years students attend in high school. Earth Day comes to teach us that by understanding problems our planet is facing and taking responsibility to save the Earth, change is possible. Earth Day is a way to restore patriotism in American citizens’ hearts.

Avigail Dupont ‘21 invited Ramaz graduate Daniel Levy ‘19 to speak to the environmental club about Earth Day. Daniel co-founded a non-profit website called YouChangeEarth . “It’s great for people who have always wanted to help the environment but don’t know where to start”, Dupont said. This website provides tools that help others find resources and information to get started on climate action. Daniel then re-visited Ramaz to speak to the freshman about an app called Joro, which helps track your carbon footprint. Ms. Abramson believes that Joro “is a portal for all kinds of environmentally, socially engaged organizations and how to participate”. Unfortunately, the rest of the school did not have the opportunity to learn about the many different ways they can participate in Earth Day.

Many students may not realize the many ways they can “Restore our Earth”. There are many small actions students can take to protect and create a better and cleaner Earth. From remembering to throw your wrappers in the garbage rather than on the floor to shutting the lights off when you leave a room instead of keeping them on for no reason, there are so many different ways to celebrate Earth Day. Earth Day is truly celebrated not only one day but 365 days and April 22 is just the day to create the awareness that will motivate people to celebrate Earth Day throughout the year. For this reason, Ramaz should hold a full school assembly about Earth Day. We must educate students every year about the many different ways they can prevent and restore our planet. There is no one way to do this, every individual can create his or her own contribution. Our Earth is our home and we must take responsibility to repair any damage that has been done. Let’s keep our home clean!

The small gestures each one of us can make to restore our home will create a better and brighter future for our world. HRgreen.org lists 50 different ways that we can help celebrate Earth Day, even during the pandemic. Some of these examples include: drinking tap water, printing paper double-sided, using reusable utensils, starting a garden, taking shorter showers, and most importantly- spreading the word.  These examples are definitely not hard to complete but without awareness no one would know to do them. In order to create this awareness, students should be taught every year about the importance of April 22nd- one year of recognition is not enough.  Therefore, Ramaz should create this consciousness and prepare the world’s new generation leaders to keep our home clean.