This year, the international observation of Earth Day aims to tackle one of the globe’s largest ongoing problems: plastics. From fast fashion to food containers, the prevalence of plastic in our environment has grown explosively in just ten years. Earth Day 2024 hopes to slow that growth, sounding the call for a 60% reduction in plastic production by the year 2040. The theme, Planet vs Plastics, calls to “advocate for widespread awareness on the health risk of plastics, rapidly phase out all single-use plastics, urgently push for a strong UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution, and demand an end to fast fashion.”
Across the globe, Earth Day 2024 campaigns and initiatives, like the Great Global Cleanup, act as displays of collective action for the sake of our planet. According to the President of EarthDay.org, Kathleen Rogers, when it comes to plastic pollution, efforts to address this “scourge” are lacking.
The Planet vs. Plastics campaign is a call to arms, a demand that we act now to end the scourge of plastics and safeguard the health of every living being upon our planet.
-Kathleen Rogers, President, EarthDay.org
“The word environment means what surrounds you. In the case of plastics we have become the product itself – it flows through our bloodstream, adheres to our internal organs, and carries with it heavy metals known to cause cancer and disease,” said Rogers. “Now this once-thought amazing and useful product has become something else, and our health and that of all other living creatures hangs in the balance.”
Earth Day 2024 in Belize
Photo by the Belize Audubon Society
Often praised as a leader in conservation, Belize is no stranger to sustainability. This year, and beyond Earth Day, plenty of organizations are putting in the work needed to see impactful changes in our world: from Fragments of Hope tackling coral bleaching to the Belize Audubon Society’s “Greening Across Belize” campaign.
Featured Photo courtesy of EarthDay.org
