Ten Ideas for Earth Day 2013

Greetings, fellow Earthlings. Today is the day we celebrate our home planet. (So actually, every day is Earth Day.) Even though many of the major events happened over the weekend — including the sustainability-centric Earth Day 2013 festival in SF and the New York Cares Day of Service in local parks — there are still many opportunities to do a favor for our planet.

According to EarthDay.org, a billion people all over the worldwide are participating. They are cleaning up beaches in Argentina. They’re hosting essay contests in Ghana. They’re giving out saplings to students in India.

Ten more ideas:

1. Join this Google Plus hangout at noon, dedicated to some environmentally friendly brainstorming.

2. Start planning an ocean-friendly garden. (It’s easier than you think.)

thehorticult-earth-day-2013_RMB9933

3. Learn about the evolution of Earth Day itself, via this handy infographic by Mother News Network.

4. Help the hardest workers in our ecosystem by planting a pollinator garden or building a bee box.

5. Need a haircut? Get one at Aveda, which will donate all proceeds from it to clean drinking water initiatives today.

6. Go to lunch at a restaurant that will donate proceeds to local clean-up campaigns like Give 5 Percent.

7. Attend a workshop in your area about composting, vermiculture, tree planting, firewise gardening…

8. Volunteer to clean up or create a habitat. (In Youngstown, OH, for example, the local wildlife org is sinking 40 Christmas trees to provide shade and shelter for fish.)

9. Discover your city’s bike paths.

Windansea sunset in La Jolla California

Windansea sunset in La Jolla, California

10. Get familiar with our lumpy, cratered, weightless planet with a mass of 6 sextillion metric tons by way of these 15 facts about Earth, via Slate.