Happy Earth Day! 4 Ways to Celebrate Nature
- Tiff
- Apr 22
- 6 min read
(Aka Taking Action, Part 4: General Ramblings, Concerns, and Hopes)
Happy Earth Day, lovely humans! I’m making this the fourth and final section of my Taking Action series into an Earth Day combo! It’ll be a bit of a recap of what you can do to celebrate Earth Day today and every day!
If the world seems heavy lately, know that you’re not alone. I hope to provide a little light for an uncertain time.
I’m writing a four-part series to go over how to cope with right now. And, beyond coping, the actions and preparations you can take involving the United States Park System, like what to expect when visiting parks this year. You’ll see this intro at the start of each blog post.
I know I have quite a few readers from Canada (thank you so much), so you can skim the voting stuff for the U.S., but everything else is applicable, so hang tight :-) I’m making this fairly short so they can be digestible. If you have comments or tips to add, PLEASE do so!
Part 4: General Ramblings, Concerns, and Hopes/Earth Day
Thanks for Reading, let’s get started
Earth Day 2025 is here! And what a glorious day it is to tend and take joy in our Earth. Below are four ways to celebrate Earth Day. Click on the corresponding arrows to learn more about each topic. Thanks for reading and happy Earth Day!
Stand Up for Public Land
First things first! Celebrate Earth Day by loving on public lands!
Right now, our public lands are in danger. Yes, National Parks have been highly impacted by job cuts, lack of maintenance, and a high visitor-to-employee ratio. National Park worries are the tip of the iceberg of a nefarious problem: the destruction of lesser-known public land through executive orders.
Federal lands under the management of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Forest Service, land trusts, state parks, the Fish and Wildlife Service, Wild and Scenic Rivers, and other entities are under attack. I do not mean this hyperbolically.
There are a multitude of orders from the current president and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum calling for “reduced protections” and to “review and, as appropriate, revise certain public land protections,” under orders called “Unleashing American Energy” and “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential.”
Here is a direct quote from the Unleashing American Energy Order:
"America is blessed with an abundance of energy and natural resources that have historically powered our Nation’s economic prosperity. In recent years, burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations have impeded the development of these resources..." Those burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations the president refers to are conservation efforts. Let that sink in...
The current administration is reducing conservation efforts with the intention of revocation. The rationale is to bring “energy” back to the states. What the order is really doing is permitting drilling and mining on OUR public lands.
The current administration wants to “rescind [Biden’s Public Lands Rule] altogether—part of a broader effort to boost drilling, mining, and other development across federally managed land” (Chris D’Angelo, Mother Jones). In the same article, D’Angelo states, “the White House moved to eliminate a Biden-era rule that barred oil and gas development across more than 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve, on Alaska’s North Slope.”
My point is not simply to shit on the administration. It is to encourage you to be moved to action. Decades-long conservation efforts are being thwarted in a matter of months, weeks, and days. It is happening right now. On April 8th of this year, “The Trump administration has opened thousands of acres of land in Nevada and New Mexico to oil and gas drilling, geothermal development and hard-rock mining, reversing protections that President Joseph R. Biden Jr. enacted during his final weeks in office” (Lisa Friedman, The New York Times). This is current. “113 million acres” of national forests are now available for logging.
This is just the beginning. If you are angry about this blatant destruction of our lands, then take action. Learn more about taking action here, but in a nutshell:
Call your representatives at 202-224-3121
Sign petitions through the Sierra Club (national or by state)
Donate to outdoor causes you believe in
Awareness: learn what public land is around you
VOTE! Vote for conservation. Vote to protect public lands. You are constituants. Those whom you vote to represent you should represent your values.
Make your voice heard. Stand up for public lands. Remember that public lands were stolen from native peoples. Remember that the United States is young, and Indigenous Peoples tended the land and lived in harmony with it long before it was stolen through genocide.
I leave this section with this:
“Only to the white man was nature a wilderness and only to him was the land 'infested' with 'wild' animals and 'savage' people. To us it was tame, Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.”
Celebrate Earth Day in Your Backyard!
Celebrating Earth Day doesn’t have to involve any travel! Celebrate Earth Day at home by trying some of these tips:
Start composting! My garden bins are all set for compost, and I can’t wait to feed my plant-babies with food scrap compost! Click the link to learn more!
Commute via bike or on foot
Start a garden!
Plant a tree
Go on an Earth Day Walk and pick up litter around your neighborhood or street
Look into a specific plant you’ve been curious about. Make your own little research project
Turn off the lights!
Shut down that AC and open your windows
Join a local trail association
Do your laundry with cold water
Unplug devices from outlets when they're not in use
Donate to your local conservation efforts
Volunteer with local conservation efforts
Join a community garden
Talk to those around you about why you love the Earth and why we should all move towards lowering our carbon footprint! Educate yourself and others
Be Eco-Friendly by Buying Second-Hand
Did you know that “about 97% of the clothes and shoes purchased in the U.S. are imported” ( ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, AP News)? Long story short, tariffs are forcing clothing companies to raise prices of clothes, which means higher price tags for apparel consumers (so, everyone, basically).
If one good thing comes from the Trump tariffs, maybe it’ll be a push towards second-hand clothing. The same author from the AP states, “the outlook for pre-owned fashion nevertheless comes with unknowns, including whether the president’s tariffs will stay long enough to pinch consumers and change their behavior.” There may also be a push to raise prices in second-hand stores to match demand.
But, for the time being, it seems that maybe buying second-hand can save some money and help stop fast fashion!
Learn more about why you should invest in used gear here! The article also tells of the negative impacts of fast fashion. And, if you’d really like, you can check out my own version of upcycled gear, Bear Hug Upcycled Apparel!
Find Joy in Nature
Last but certainly not least in the ways you can celebrate Earth Day is by simply being present in nature. Let your toes touch grass, let dirt get trapped under your fingernails, let yourself close your eyes and listen to the wind in the trees. Smell the cherry blossoms. See that lone flower growing through the crack in the pavement, or the wind blowing on the wild plants beside highways. Celebrate by noticing, then taking the extra moment to appreciate that notice.
Check out last year’s “Celebrate Earth Day” post by clicking here, which is full of more in-depth steps you can take to celebrate Earth Day on a local level. It’s full of great tips and is a tad (a lot) more uplifting than this one.
However bleak this post may seem, it is rooted in the deep belief in conservation efforts. We are called to protect the land we have been blessed with, and I mean all of it, not just the land that invisible borders have been drawn through. I mean this whole Earth, which we must nurture and love and, of course, celebrate.
I will leave you to ponder a Nehinaw prophecy
When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money. -Cree Prophecy
Thanks for reading, XO,
Tiff
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