7. Why April 22nd?

Every day is Earth Day, but the first official Earth Day celebration was on April 22, 1970. It was founded by Wisconsin Senator, Gaylord Nelson. In his conservation efforts, Nelson organized a nationwide grassroots demonstration in the spring of 1970, to further promote conservation involvement and awareness. Support for and interest in the activity was immense and the 1970 demonstration became the first official Earth Day. Each year, April 22 marks the celebration of Earth Day, which is now observed around the world. April 22nd is also the first official day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the first official day of Fall in the Southern Hemisphere.

6. Creation of the EPA

Nelson worried that environmental issues were not being addressed in the political arena. The first Earth Day helped inspire the United States Environmental Protection Agency. By the end of 1970, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had been born, and efforts to improve air and water quality were gaining political traction. This is evident in the passing of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.

5. Huge Celebration

Earth Day is actually the 3rd largest celebrated holiday, behind Christmas and Halloween. In fact, 20 million Americans participated in the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Earth Day Networks estimates that 500 million people from 4,500 organizations in 180 countries will participate in Earth Day events during the month of April.

4. The Power of Recycling

Never underestimate the importance of recycling:

-If every newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year. Unfortunately only 27% of all American newspapers are recycled.
-Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to watch a TV for three hours – that is equivalent to half a gallon of gasoline.
-More than 20,000,000 Hershey’s Kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of tinfoil. All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it.

3. Breaking Things Down

How long it takes some things take to break down:

-plastics take 500 years,
-aluminum cans take 500 years,
-organic materials, take 6 months,
-cotton, rags, paper take 6 months.

The U.S. has over 12,000 old landfills and over 3,000 active landfills. Just think how many there are around the world—and we leave it to mother earth to break everything down.

2. The Amount of Water We Use Everyday

We each use about 12,000 gallons of water every year , 1/3 of all water is used to flush the toilet.

3-7 gallons for toilet,
25-30 gallons for tub,
50-70 gallons for a 10 minute shower,
1 washing machine load uses 25-40 gallons,
1 dishwasher load uses 9-12 gallons

Earth is 2/3 water, but all the fresh water streams only represent one hundredth of one percent.

1. A lot of people think that the Earth is round…

but it is actually pear-shaped. The top is pushed in and the bottom bulges out! The circumference, or distance around the Earth at the equator (or the fattest part of the “pear”), is 24,901.55 miles.

Visit www.futurefriendly.com for ideas of things you can do in your house to honor Mother Earth.