If the skies covering the globe become choked with pollutants, destroying the ozone, what will we do? If all the world’s soils were to be contaminated by toxic runoff, where will we go? If trash in our oceans kills off all marine life and groundwater levels are decimated by unsustainable water usage, how will we live?

For important reasons, the condition of our planet is an issue that affects everyone. No matter where you live or who you are, our dependence on planet Earth is something we all have in common.

Since the first Earth Day observance on April 22, 1970, each Earth Day matters more than the last one. Stewardship for the environment is not new. Henry David Thoreau, who lived and died in the 19th century, chronicled the development of his affections for the environment in his book Walden and is known as an early American environmentalist. George Washington Carver, a professor of agriculture who was born a slave, is credited with promoting techniques such as crop rotation. Crop rotation which is still regarded as a sound soil conservation practice today, years after Carver’s death in 1943.

There is a scene in an early season of the television series “Mad Men” where advertising executive Don Draper and the rest of the Draper Family, wife Betty, daughter Sally, and son Bobby enjoy a picnic in the park. At the end of the outing, Betty gathers the picnic basket and kids. Don lifts the picnic blanket, shakes it, and leaves–leaving the debris from the family’s meal on the ground. It’s fiction, but if the attitude was true to the 1960s, we’ve come a long way!

In my experience, providing my own grocery bag is no longer viewed as weird or out of the ordinary. In fact, the grocery chain I shop at most often even offers a nickel off for every bag each customer supplies. Some communities and even entire states are banning plastic grocery bags and are now charging up to a ten cents for every store-provided bag used.

And for good reason: There is a giant patch of garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean, and there are no fewer than five giant patches of garbage floating in the Earth’s oceans. We wonder where the garbage in these patches is from. Do we wonder enough about where our own garbage goes? For a while, we enjoyed a false sense of closure to our consumption habits. As long as we recycled our packaging and plastics, we’d done our part. But now, that part of the loop is no longer something the U.S. can depend on. China, which was in the past a major buyer of some of our discarded plastics, has stricter requirements and accepts far less than it once did.

And Earth Day Matters more than ever because in the U.S.people who live in poverty and people of color are affected disproportionately by policies and operations that leave their air, water and land contaminated.

In early 2014 a chemical leak in Charleston, West Virginia contaminated the water supply of 300,000 people. That’s in a state where just under one in five of its 1.8 million citizens live below the poverty line.

In 2014, Flint, Michigan switched its municipal water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. The result? Lead exposure for thousand of its citizens, including children. In 2014, the year of the change, 40% of Flint’s residents lived in poverty.

The operators of many abandoned mines on or near Navajo nation lands left behind dangerous amounts of heavy metals and toxic chemicals, causing exposure to chemicals for which there are no established levels of safe exposure.

In Hawaii, where about 60% of the population identifies as non-white, the waters surrounding the Islands that make up the state have been so affected by pollution that it has had devastating affects on its coral reefs. Chemicals found in sunscreens were identified as one of many culprits. As a result, in 2018 the Governor and State Legislature of Hawaii signed a ban on sunscreen that will go into effect in 2021.

Environmental justice for all? Sadly, many of the products or solutions on the market have steep price tags. Despite available tax breaks and incentives by many states and governments, more costly energy efficient consumer items, such as the installation of solar panels on residential dwellings, purchase of zero-emission or hybrid cars too often remain the purvey of affluent white Americans. Though on paper these solutions offer cost savings that may look enticing, these may have other barriers, from being a renter vs. an owner or too steep entry costs.

I for one, do not participate in sustainable consumer or residential practices to the extent that I would like, but I do somethings. There are a few actions I hope you will consider.

• Investigate sustainable housing solutions.
• Buy the most energy-efficient car you can afford.  
• Look for locally produced products.
• Invest in reusable water bottles.
• Instead of paper napkins use cloth napkins.
• Use cloth or re-purposed grocery bags.
• Compost.

Remember that when it comes to our air, our waterways and the grounds of the Earth, every action we take matters. Find a balance between unsanitary hoarding and responsibly disposing the things that no longer serve us. For now, it’s not possible to do everything perfectly but it’s important that we all do something. It matters now, but it will matter even more in the future.

If you are inspired by what you’ve read, comment below.

Photo by manu schwendener on Unsplash.