Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

In 1971 US Senator and environmental activist Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day, and it’s celebrated again this coming Sunday, April 22nd. As environmental issues become an increasing concern to the general public, Earth Day as an event takes on more and more significance.

It aims to unite people over environmental issues such as global warming or pollution, to promote ecological ideas and educate people to help preserve what we tend to take for granted: our environment.

Earth Day is an opportunity for everyone to really think about the their contribution to the planet – just as climate change campaigner Al Gore asked on Answers last year - and to learn how to make changes to our attitudes towards the planet by being more eco-friendly. Even Yahoo! is doing its bit this year with a question from the our co-founder David Filo about going carbon neutral.

But you don’t need to be a big organisation to try to make a change. We can all, as individuals, start making small differences, just as botanist and national hero David Bellamy asked last year on Answers. Simple examples include: driving less and using public transport, buying local and organic products, recycling when possible. We can switch off appliances when not using them, and just by changing to energy-efficient light bulbs, you’re helping as they last longer. They’ll even save you money. Little things, yes, but these are the things that really do matter and make a difference if adopted on an ever expanding scale.

So, if you’re not yet converted to the green way, perhaps Sunday is the day to start making small changes, whether it’s getting involved in a community project planting a tree, cleaning the streets or just picking up rubbish from the beach.

For more information, visit our Earth Day section on Answers for more information on what you can do for this special event, or use the Environment & Ecology category to ask the Answers Community for advice and tips on how to be environment-friendly in your everyday life.

More Earth Day questions on Answers:

• What are the impacts of global warming?
• Conservation and “Green” awareness?
• How can we realistically bring global warming under control?
• How can we make air transport (by plane) more environmentally friendly/greener?
• How can we convince people that reducing rubbish is better than recycling?
• How can we create sustainable communities so we stop using up resources faster than they can be replaced?
• Whose responsibility is it to manage the world’s resources?
• How could we ensure access to clean water for everyone in the third world?

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team