Hi everyone! It’s Lilly and Jaden from The Scarlet Scroll! We’re here to talk about Earth Day! This holiday falls on Apr. 22 and is one of the most important holidays (in our opinion) of the year. The holiday was officially recognized on April 22, 1972 as a secular holiday by the US. Since then, Americans have celebrated by doing small things for our environment and drawing attention to all the ways our world has to change in order to preserve our planet. Whether it be planting a tree or street cleaning, there are hundreds of ways to help our environment. We wanted to show some ways to get involved here in Orange County. Because we live in Southern California, we thought a beach clean up would be a perfect way to start.

There are hundreds of nonprofit organizations that work to clean up our California beaches. My personal favorite is the nonprofit organization, Surfrider Foundation, which was founded in Malibu in 1984. The organization works all over Southern California to not only organize beach clean ups, but measure the trash picked up and report which brands make up the majority of the trash. The heads of this organization bring this data to city officials and work to create legislation to prevent trash from reaching the oceans in the first place. We went with some of our friends to a Surfrider beach clean-up in Newport Beach. Within five minutes of being there, we picked up at least two handfuls of trash. The most common things we saw were cigarette butts, bottle caps, and little broken up plastic pieces. By the end, we had about four pounds worth of trash and that was after only two hours!! Remember, that’s four pounds worth of bottle caps and plastic pieces. That’s a lot of trash. And it’s all small things! They accumulate and kill our sea life.

One way to help our planet and solve this problem is putting your trash where it belongs! The trash can. And if you see some trash on the street, pick it up, because that will eventually lead to the ocean. Think about all the adorable sea creatures in the water. We do this for them. And come to a beach clean-up once and a while. There’s never too many people at a beach clean-up. Sadly, there is always more trash to be cleaned up. If that’s not your thing, go plant a tree with Tree People or start shopping from thrift stores, take shorter showers, don’t waste food, eat less meat, the whole nine yards. Really, there’s so much we can do in our daily lives to help our planet. So this earth day, think about ways that you can help our planet. And bring your friends! 

The following are organizations that work to protect our planet and provide relief. While some host volunteer opportunities, others take donations to spread their mission. 

Surfrider Foundation

Tree People

Goodwill 

Pacific Marine Mammal Center

Environmental Nature Center