It's bEARTHday

 

Please be aware I STILL cannot leave comments to anyone who uses embedded comments.  I get "failed to publish," and, even though I keep trying, I get the same message every time. This is very frustrating.  I appreciate your patience and understanding that it is not me because I do visit and leave a comment.

Today is Earth Day (although every day should be Earth Day).  It's also the day of my birth.  There are 193 countries participating in Earth Day today.  Yours is surely one of them.

For 2024, the theme is one that is near and dear to me: Planet vs. Plastic.  Long time readers and visitors to my blog know how I feel about plastic.  It is one of, and possibly the worst invention ever. 

However, let's go back to the first ever Earth Day.  If you've been around my blog for years, or you are aware of Earth Day, you know it was originally created by Senator Gaylord Nelson and intended to be a teach-in on various campuses across the nation.  Teach-ins are actually debates and who really would debate in favor of pollution, bad water, or dirtier oceans?  That was when the focus was changed and, instead of having an Earth Day celebration solely on college campuses, it was decided that the event should also be held in community centers and parks.

Although Gaylord Nelson gets all the credit for Earth Day, way back in the late 1950s, Rachel Carson, an American marine biologist, began looking into  pesticides first used by soldiers in WWII.  Before that, she was concerned about the synthetic pesticides created by the military after the war.  In 1957, the Dept. of Agriculture tried to eradicate fire ants using DDT and fuel oil to spray on private land.  One such place was Long Island, New York.  She learned that not only were the fire ants NOT eradicated, dogs, birds, and horses WERE (Lear, Linda,  Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature, pp. 117–124).  

Some of your parents or grandparents may remember that there were no cranberries for sale in 1957 through 1959.  A specific herbicide was over-sprayed and the cranberry crops had to be halted (Lear, p. 22).

It was then Carson decided to write a book documenting research of the chemical spraying programs funded by the Dept. of Agriculture and corporations that made the chemicals.  The book is called Silent Spring.  It was published in 1962 and was the forerunner that led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

If you want to celebrate Earth Day, do something for the environment.  Pick up trash along a river, help clean up a park, plant a tree, or recycle old electronics.  

If you are unable to do any of those and plan to go grocery shopping today, please DO NOT buy anything in plastic.  Glass jars, tin or metal cans, and paper/cardboard are acceptable.  I love using 1/2 and1/2 in my coffee because it comes in a cardboard container.  If you go out to eat and decide to bring some food home, I hope it's not in Styrofoam, which is a form of plastic.  Let's give plastic the boot!

Let's see what the rest of the world is creating today using recycled products. 

  Jane Perkins: The Raj's Emerald, a portrait using found materials

  Barefooted Welder: Scrap metal sculptor from Australia who created Kali the cat

Robert Bradford: Horse sculpture made out of recycled toys

   Steven Rodrig: Sea turtle sculpture using discarded electronics

   Nick Gentry: Portrait made of recycled media

  Derek Gores: Collage made from recycled magazines

  Erika Iris Simmons: Bob Marley portrait made with old cassette tape

  TC Trash Art: Daily art made from beach clean-ups in Florida

I hope you have enjoyed this look at what others consider art made from trash, waste, or recycled materials.  Have a fabulous Earth Day and please do something good for the planet today (and every day).

And a bit of PLASTIC humor before I go:

 

This is Day 22 of 22 and I shared how other artists respect the planet by using recycled, repurposed, and reused materials in their art.