*sigh* *takes a long but elegant drink of water* well hello people. get comfy - we…have a lot to talk about. ⊱ ━━━━.⋅ εïз ⋅.━━━━ ⊰ disclaimer: this is kind of a rant, and i absolutely do not want to offend anyone so please don’t take anything personally - and expect this to be long ^^” and two: i know i already posted a proj today (https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/996200255), but ig i had a lot to say so here we are ahaha ;) ⊱ ━━━━.⋅ εïз ⋅.━━━━ ⊰ if you don’t know me, i’m nova, teen environmental activist who likes to post stuff on scratch - welcome to my corner of the internet <3 so…i’ve been seeing some stuff today. if you didn’t know, today is earth day (at least in my part of the world). earth day is celebrated so that all of us can play our parts in saving our planet. so what’s wrong with it, you ask? well. perhaps let’s start off with a story. today, my science class (and many others, both in my school and other schools) participated in a little earth day activity to celebrate the occasion. we’d never done anything like this before, so i was excited. i was delighted to find out my school cared about the climate crisis and was now initiating an activity to teach students about the issue. so i walked into the room, where other classes were seated, and turned around. and ohhhh my gosh. what i saw…scared me, honestly. all the teachers were wearing designated t-shirts for earth day - as if fast fashion wasn’t a thing. there were exotic animals trapped in cages. we were using plastic bowls and plastic cups to plant seeds. there were hundreds of coloring pages scattered on tables, and the trash bins were full and overflowing because of all of the disposable materials. what kind of earth day was that supposed to be?? it isn’t just my school. businesses are capitalizing on this day, selling t-shirts with “save the planet!” and “earth day” all over them, as well as plastic cups and tons of other products that just contribute to the whole problem in the first place. businesses benefiting and getting a profit from selling all of these harmful things. making money from these on the very day eco-friendly practices are supposed to be taken. it’s absolutely /disgusting/, honestly. it’s terrible and horrifying. let me take a moment to remind you all what earth day is all about in the first place. earth day is about saving the planet and raising awareness for the issues our planet is facing, not creating more problems. we don’t need you to wear or sell a bright plastic-containing and oil-consisting t-shirt to show your support for the planet (that will probably go right into the landfills). we don’t need you to bring out all your earth day merch. we don’t need encaged animals when the whole purpose is to help them and let them live freely. what we need is minimalizing this. what we need is steps toward sustainability and a cleaner future. the idea of earth day is awesome. we just need to do it. we are part of this. we can make change happen if we work together. so - let’s reclaim earth day for its real purpose together <3
