Local professor discusses urgency to act on Earth Day and all year long
On this 51st observation of Earth Day in the US, folks around the world are doing their part to care for it.
"We need to think of our planet as our life support system," says Colleen McLean, YSU associate professor of environmental science. "The trees are our planetary lungs, we know the wetlands are our planetary kidneys and all the different spheres provide different domains to our well-being."
McLean led a group Thursday planting trees to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
Planting trees - as more than a dozen FirstEnergy volunteers did at Mill Creek Metroparks - cuts tons of CO2 every year.
But there's so much more you can do, say volunteers at EarthDay.org.
- You can make your next meal plant-based.
- You can recycle to help reduce plastic pollution.
- You can also advocate for climate-related issues at the ballot box or even just post signs spreading the word.
Scientists say even after 50-plus years of Earth Day, the urgency to cut our carbon footprint is growing fast.
"We are less than 10 years from what a lot of scientists believe will be a tipping point, and if we don't lower our emissions by 2030, we could really pass that threshold into a different climatic regime," says McLean, who also pointed out that it will have impacts ranging from our food system to the weather patterns we experience.
Which is why there's no time like the present - to help take care of the present we call planet Earth.
"Get informed, try to do what's best for our ecosystem, reduce chemicals, plant trees, let the pollinators grow and just embrace nature," McLean said.
