APRIL 2020: ANTICIPATE EARTH DAY'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY; FIGHT PLASTIC POLLUTION!

Runner friend Mary from Chicago picked up trash including a disposable plastic soda bottle this April while walking her dog. Strong work! All rights reserved.

IN ADVANCE OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST EARTH DAY AND MONTH  in  1970, this is a perfect time to plan a year of helping to make our environment cleaner, healthier, and friendly.  For all beings who currently inhabit our planet and will do so in the future.  That means our children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and neighborhood kids amongst the humans, and countless generations of other living creatures who will continue to make our world a beautiful, exciting, and wondrous place.
 
Earned Runs has encouraged trash pickup this month, but the problem of disposable plastic pollution can’t be solved by clean-up efforts.  Media stories are increasingly sounding the alarm that that recycling is ineffective in reducing the rapidly increasing amount of waste that is filling the planet.
  
One way to become a part of the movement today is to simply take the “Pledge to End Plastic Pollution” promoted by the Earth Day Network to reduce use of disposable plastic. Now. Then take a few minutes to learn more about the issue from the EDN’s educational materials.  
 
Or from an Earned Runs blog post on October 22, 2018 (the half year mark of the official celebration that year) that provided background information on the environmental burden created by widespread disposable plastic bottle use and the economic reasons to revert to drinking tap water from earth-friendly re-usable bottles.
 
The task today can be education, nothing more.  I took the EDN Pledge and received a thank-you message on another page.  I was asked to donate but did not.
 
Instead I clicked on a charitynavigator.com link which took me to the mission description of the organization.  It indicates that the EDN “grew out of the original Earth Day in 1970” and how it works to “mobilize” the worldwide annual celebration to “as the most effective vehicle for promoting a healthy, sustainable planet”.    I learned the EDN has a very good overall and accountability/ transparency scores (91.94 and 93 respectively of 100) from Charity Navigator, should I decide later to give money.
 
Next, I returned to the EDN ‘thank you’ message and clicked on the “Campaigns” link at the top of that page, and then the “Plastic Pollution” link at the bottom of the page which had opened.  I checked out the “plastic calculator“ that determined my personal yearly consumption and how I might reduce the amount.  
 
Earned Runs encourages lovers of outdoor fitness activity to learn more about and begin to fight plastic pollution leading up to the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and Earth Month.  Although our efforts might be scattered throughout the year, not be part of an organized campaign, and not involve donating money, the earth will benefit.  Especially if we spread the message to others to multiply the environmental effect of fighting plastic pollution.
 
RUN & MOVE HAPPY!

EARNED RUNS BLOG POST October 22. 2018

https://www.earthday.org/stop-using-disposable-plastic/
 
https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3635#
 
https://www.earthday.org/stop-using-disposable-plastic/
 
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/plastic-produced-recycling-waste-ocean-trash-debris-environment/

IMAGES below: Picking up trash is not going to solve the plastic solution problem, but it is a small gesture of earth-love.