Earth Day 2009

Today, April 22nd, is Earth Day. It is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. It is seen as a consolidation of efforts for maintaining the Earth's environment throughout the world. The date is significant, as it corresponds to the mass protest of 1970 which began the modern environmental movement.

The state of the planet is most certainly a concern as we continue to pollute the planet and, most probably, contribute to the enhanced greenhouse effect. The world now consumes two barrels of oil for every barrel discovered and it took 125 years to consume the first trillion barrels of oil – the world will consume the next trillion in only 30 years, according to Chevron. During the last one hundred years the global temperature has warmed between 0.7-1.5°C. It is predicted that global temperatures in 2100 will be 1.4-5.8°C warmer than they were in 1990.

So what can you do about it. The Earth Day website has a fact-sheet for schools and pupils which outlines simple things we can all do to help the environment. You can download it by clicking here. For more information, visit http://www.earthday.net/.