Who Says You Can’t Change the World?
In April of 1970, 20 million Americans celebrated the first Earth Day. In 1990, Earth Day went global, with 200 million people in 141 countries participating. This year, on April 22, Earth Day Nantucket will offer island residents a local event to attend that will include activities, displays, demonstrations, talks, multi-media presentations, and even a film.
According to event organizer Bruce Marshall-Jones, Earth Day Nantucket will be a way to increase public awareness of environmental issues and offer a venue to talk about climate change and to share common goals. “We need to stop labeling people as right wing or left wing, as Republican, Democrat, Independent, Evangelical...and we need to look for common ground to help the planet.”
Marshall-Jones strongly believes that people can make a difference: “We need to recognize that we can change this around....It’s not about doomsday—we have the technology to solve this huge climate crisis.”
The event begins at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Unitarian Church on Orange Street and includes a broad range of people who are doing something about the environment. Participants include the Maria Mitchell Association, the Nantucket Land Council, the Nantucket New School, Nantucket Public Schools, DPW Arborists, EnergyIndependenceToday.com, Verde Green Building Corp., Marine Home Center, Christopher Holland & Associates, the Stop-n-Shop, Cormack Collier, and a number of other concerned residents and environmentally conscious businesspeople. At 3:30 p.m. there will be a showing of An Inconvenient Truth in Hendrix Hall.
The event is free, but donations will be accepted and energy efficient lightbulbs will be sold during the event, with the proceeds going toward tree planting on Nantucket.
Marshall-Jones acknowledges that the environmental issues facing us today can seem daunting, but he hopes that Earth Day Nantucket will strike a positive note and emphasize that there are things each of us can do to be part of the solution. “It is one thing to point out the clear facts that Climate Change and Global Warming is real. But it is even more important to point out real and positive solutions we can all wrap our heads around,” he commented. “If we all just changed our lightbulbs, that would have a profound effect.”
In addition to switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs, some of the other simple life changes that we all can make to help the environment include:
Get your car tuned up: a tune-up often improves fuel efficiency by half. If 100,000 got their cars tuned up, we could ave 124,000 tons of CO2.
Ride a bicycle or use the N.R.T.A.—or both, N.R.T.A. busses have handy bicycle racks.
Clean vents, change filters, and close unused vents in your heating and cooling systems.
Use a programmable thermostat
Turn your AC up 2 degrees in the summer and your heat down 2 degrees in the winter.
Clean the condenser coil on your refrigerator and make sure the door seals properly.
Wait until you have a full load to run the dishwasher or clothes washer.
Recycle and buy recycled products.
For more info about what you can do to help our planet, see www.EarthDay.net.
