Earth Day and Free Printables
Discover what Earth Day is all about, and what you can do to help and share with your children.
Earth Day 2021 is a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness of our planet, and how it needs to be protected. By looking after the planet, we are helping to save animals, reduce pollution and improve the world for everyone. In this article, we discuss what Earth Day is and why it’s important!
A brief history of Earth Day
Although the Earth has existed for billions of years, Earth Day is a fairly new event. The first Earth Day was just over 50 years ago in 1970 and since then over 190 countries and 1 billion people have been engaged with making Earth Day a success*.
Earth Day is celebrated every year on 22nd April and its aim is to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the planet, and what actions we can all do to help make a difference.
Below are some examples of the biggest challenges the Earth is facing, and some ideas that you and your family can get involved in to make a difference.
Plastic Waste
Did You Know? More than 8 million tons of plastic gets dumped on the planet every year – most of which ends up in the ocean.
That’s the equivalent of one bin lorry full of plastic every minute!
Plastic waste such as shampoo bottles and shopping bags never fully disappear from the Earth. They break down into tiny pieces and the majority of these small plastic pieces end up in the ocean where it threatens marine life such as fish, turtles, whales and even seabirds.
Turtles often mistake the plastic pieces for food which can harm them, or they get caught in the plastic and they then become trapped.
In 2013, 18 year old Boyan Slat started a company called Ocean Cleanup. The non-profit organisation conducts research and develops advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. They discovered that most plastic in our ocean originates from rivers and not many technologies existed to stop this from happening. Ocean Cleanup invented ‘The Interceptor’ – an autonomous machine that stops plastic entering the ocean from the rivers, and their goal is to reduce the plastic waste by at least 90%.
You can read more about the amazing work Ocean Cleanup do on their website HERE.
What can we do to reduce plastic waste?
There are various ways we can help reduce plastic waste (and as a result, help save the planet’s wildlife). First of all, we can replace plastic items with things that aren’t made of plastic.
Activity ideas for you and your children
Why not spend 5 minutes going around the house to see what could be replaced with alternatives that aren’t made of plastic? Write them down and see how many you can find.
Alternatives could, for example, be wooden kitchen utensils, using reusable fabric bags instead of disposable plastic shopping bags and paper straws instead of plastic ones.
Using materials that are recyclable has huge benefits. It means that the same items can be used over and over again, and there’s less need to dump items into landfill areas or into the ocean.
Climate Change
Cars emit a gas called Carbon Dioxide (or CO2) which causes damage to the environment and is causing climate change. This is a major issue as climate change causes natural disasters such as forest fires that threaten the areas where animals live.
CO2 doesn’t just come from cars. Homes and factories also create CO2 but, by working together, we can all take action to stop climate change.
Did You Know? Humans are the biggest reason for climate change. Our day-to-day activities are causing Earth to get warmer because we’re producing too much carbon dioxide.
What can we do to help?
The good news is that we can reverse climate change by reducing CO2 in the atmosphere. Simple actions such as turning off lights in a room if nobody is there, or walking rather than taking the car can help protect the environment that we live in (and they help save money as well!).
Activity idea for you and your children
Why not spend 5 minutes looking around your house. Are there any lights on that don’t need to be? Are there any plugs switched on but are not being used? See how many you can find.
What Little World Builder does to help
Everyone at Little World Builder has the same mission – to inspire the next generation for a better future! As a start-up business based in the UK, we are trying extremely hard to keep our product costs down for parents whilst, maintaining the Earth’s health.
We only use recycled paper for all our office needs and all our products that were initially packed in plastic bags are now packaged in either paper or bio-degradable bags.
Did You Know? Whilst trying to achieve the balance between the recycling mindset and keeping product cost as low as possible, our account team declared war with our product design team – a battle that has gone on since day 2 of Little World Builder being launched!
Although the civil war is still on-going, we will keep our promise to love our planet whilst continuing to create more exciting products for our Little World Builder network and community.
Looking for more Earth Day activities? Try some of our free printables at home to celebrate this wonderful day!
Download & Print
Reference Source:
Source Data for Earth Day HERE
Bins lorry reference HERE
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. Why not help make a difference by sharing this article with your friends so that they can, in turn, make a difference!
