Forty years ago, the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970. More than a celebration, it marked great political acts in favour of protecting the needs of our share home, Earth.
Forty years later, there have been some good developments, and some not so good.  There now are more organizations, and better planned, working to help, protect, and save our planet.
However, in these last four decades, there have also been ongoing as well as many increasing environmental stresses on our common home.  

There have been a lot of strides made in areas of awareness and education through the film industry, documentaries, literature, the internet, schools, etc. But, in many cases, it feels as though more of this is necessary, in general.  It’s also been essential with every new group of children, and will continue to be.   The thing is, there is still so much improvement to be made in so many sick areas of Earth.  And here is where we move beyond awareness and education and into acts.

I know, life is hard enough as it is.  It’s too busy and too costly, and with the economy the way it is... but if the Earth is essentially our home... the one thing that we, as humans do have in common, and our home needed some repairs, wouldn’t we want to at least do the best we could to try and fix the things that we could?
As it is, there are still too many places where pollutants still infiltrate the air, water, and land too much.  Too many trees are still being cut down.  As a result of just these couple of very general examples, there are people and animals who have illnesses and / or otherwise suffer because of such things.  The quality of life, overall, is lessened.
We are all so intricately connected.

So, in our own homes, with our families, surely some of us would agree that our finances are tight. But when something breaks, needs replacing, or both, we either try to remedy it ourselves if possible, or if we can’t we try to pay someone to do it.  If things go too long, more things fall apart and our homes are in more disarray.  Soon we have a home environment that is not so healthy for the inhabitants.  We’d rather have our homes running as smoothly as we can possibly can.  

Just like our planet.  It’s everyone’s home.  And we might be interested in having it run as smoothly as it possibly can. For everyone.  For the the quality of all life. And our best hopes for the greatest of such a possibility is the ability to have a widespread concerted effort.  One person CAN make a difference, but together we are even stronger.

Begin by doing things directly in your own home.  Just change a few things. And that’s it. After a little while, it will just be a part of your lifestyle and it would barely be noticeable.  There are also always things you can do outside the home, too.  

Remember, just because the Earth has problems, doesn’t mean they can’t be fixed. They can! Earth is still beautiful. I find beauty every day. Our planet can still give to us, our sustainable needs. But we need to maintain balance. We simply need to also give, too.  If we continue to join together, and to teach our children to join with us. It is a team effort, a global effort. If Earth is our common home, then it is a family effort.




HELPFUL LINKS

Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary: [link]

Earth Day 2010’s Activities: [link]

Earth Day History & Environment: [link]?

TWENTY Everyday Ways to Help Earth: [link]


There’s no way I could have done an article about something as great as our planet Earth without the essential accompaniment of such fantastic artworks from some of the many wonderful and talented dA Artists!

^{NOTE: I was wishing as I put this together, that I could at least find a way to include something from EACH one of my watchers... I do apologize that I could not figure out a way to do that, and keep to the format below at the same time. Just know I was thinking very much about that, and wishing that I wouldn’t have to leave anyone out. I just hope, that even if you’re not actually included below, that you might still enjoy the article as a whole, for the message it is trying to convey. But know I was thinking of everyone!}

Without further ado, Please enjoy the show:

The Flower Garden

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"Earth laughs in flowers."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson


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Plants and Trees

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All Kinds of SCAPES [ Some will include more trees. ]

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Insects

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Cats and Dogs [Domestic]

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Birds and Other Animals

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Other Ecological / Environmental Scenes

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Humans [ Can’t Leave Us Out! ]

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Stamps

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Thank you all for making this possible, and as always I appreciate your support.

WE LOVE EARTH!