April 21, 2015

2 min read

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Show and Tell: How Will You Celebrate Earth Day?

Send us photos and videos of your hiking, biking, trash-collecting, energy-saving, water-conserving selves in action

By Mark Fischetti

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This Wednesday people worldwide will celebrate the 45th annual Earth Day. The party started early this past Saturday, when more than 200,000 revelers showed up for an Earth Day concert on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The event was solar powered but, unfortunately, there were not enough garbage bins, so people who attended reported heaps of trash throughout the Mall. The lesson: good intentions score big, good actions score bigger.

So here’s your chance to show the world what you are doing. The Earth Day Network says that more than one billion people will commemorate the day. That may be optimistic, and yet Scientific American has received dozens of e-mails announcing special events all over the place. The Network, for example, is co-hosting a global e-discussion on Wednesday at 11:00 A.M. Eastern Time. Pres. Barack Obama will give a speech from the Everglades in Florida. The California Institute of Technology is releasing video about cleaner ways to produce chemicals. Trees for the Future will be, well, planting trees; of course, you can donate one via that organization, or plant one yourself (photo opp!). And remember that oceans, lakes and rivers are vital parts of Earth, too.

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You, our readers, are among the most educated and activated citizens of our planet, so let’s show the world how to celebrate it. Send us photos and videos. Anything goes—from attending Earth Day parties to recycling those old denim jeans or going to special events at schools, towns or even larger venues. You could join the Earth Day Every Day challenge to reduce your carbon footprint; electronically sign Canada’s Earth Day 2015 flag; or perhaps just take a walk with a young person so he or she will appreciate the environment.

Please include a photo credit and a short description of how you observed Earth Day. We will post a gallery of images once the day is done.

 

 

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Mark Fischetti was a senior editor at Scientific American for nearly 20 years and covered sustainability issues, including climate, environment, energy, and more. He assigned and edited feature articles and news by journalists and scientists and also wrote in those formats. He was founding managing editor of two spin-off magazines: Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 article “Drowning New Orleans” predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. Fischetti has written as a freelancer for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian and many other outlets. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti has a physics degree and has twice served as Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union’s Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism. He has appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many radio stations.

More by Mark Fischetti

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