Earth Day 2018

Earth Day? What is it? Earth Day is an annual globe-spanning event which urges people to think about how their actions and presence affect the environment. It has been celebrated for 50 years. It began on April 22, 1970. These day millions of people took the streets to protest about the negative effects of 150 years of industrialisation. This year 2018, Earth Day was focused on ending plastic pollution, especially the ‘single use and throw away’ culture associated with the material. Furthermore, it has been honoured with a Google Doodle in which world famous anthropologist and animal lover Jane Goodall appears.

Who is Jane? Jane Goodall, otherwise known as Doctor Jane Goodall, who is 84 years old, is a legendary anthropologist. She is famous for her study of chimpanzee social and family life in Tanzania in the 1960s. She theorised that human aren’t the only species who have individual personalities. She even observed human behaviours including hugs and kisses on the back of chimps. Google says that Jane shares her personal message to the world on Earth Day 2018, including some of her inspiration and what we can all do to have a positive impact on our planet. Something that caught my eye was that she said that she was born loving animals and her whole childhood really was animals and animals.

In fact, what is a Google Doodle? Google Doodles were born in 1998. The search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second ‘o’ of the name of Google as a message to they were out of office at the Burning Man festival. The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage. Me, personally, I prefer the doodlers which are designed to play. The doodler I enjoyed the most was the one which honoured pangolins.

All in all, I think that celebrating Earth Day is a good action. This is an opportunity to warn people about how polluted our oceans, water and wildlife are, especially because of plastic. Additionally, I reckon that more people should take part in these marches. However, we can do simple things to make a difference like stopping buying one-time-use items, reusing plastic bags, diving into second-hand shopping and natural fibres and carrying our own utentsiles and reusable water bottle, among other things.