Me Power & We Power
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” What Margaret Mead, the famous anthropologist, said played out in the story of Earth Day. One man, distressed over the environmental degradation he saw, initiated the first Earth Day, 53 years ago.
He claimed his “Me Power.”
Another man, employing his organizing skills, joined him and made possible the expansion of Earth Day so that it now reaches billions of people in 192 countries.
Together they turned the effort into
“We Power.”
We too can change the world—
with our individual and corporate actions.
Let’s celebrate the possibilities, claim our power, and get to work!
Share these Tips with your family, friends, and congregation. Choose any or all. Forward them to someone you care about. Cut-and-paste to put them with your email signature, in your letters and emails, worship bulletins, newsletters, social media, or website.
April 2024 Tips
Earth Day 2024 Focus:
Planet vs. Plastic
For a few days keep a tally of all the single-use plastic you encounter. Become hyper-aware of plastic bags, excess packaging, water bottles, disposable cutlery, straws, cups that litter your life before they stay in landfills or oceans for eons. Share your count with at least one other person. Awareness is the first step to positive change.
Treat your family to alternatives to the usual single-use plastic items in your home. Consider bamboo toothbrushes, shampoo bars, aluminum water bottles, reusable silicone baggies, for example. Or visit a refill store. Move away from “throw-away.”
Tell your friends what you are doing to greatly reduce the plastic waste in your life. Talk about why that change is important to you. Recount your changes as steps in a journey and invite them to join you in tackling the problem. Encourage them; avoid creating any embarrassment.
At work, check out the coffee station. Styrofoam cups and plastic stirrers get thrown away but never go away. Look for non-plastic alternatives for coffee cups. Buy a package of linguine pasta, break the strands in half and use them to stir the coffee or tea. The pasta-stirrers can be composted or thrown away without the same harm that plastic generates.
Plan an Earth Day (April 22) opportunity to educate and encourage your church family about choosing the planet vs. plastic. Consider a display, “This—Not That,” showing alternatives to single-use plastic. Plan a special Sunday school program. Arrange to clean up a nearby stream or roadway as a service project. Weigh and report the results. In worship include prayers for the planet. Hand out reusable bags imprinted with a reminder to care for creation.
Donate to organizations that are addressing the plastic problem on a larger scale. Your financial support enables them to reach far and wide. Check out these: EarthDay.org, Plastic-Free July, The Story of Stuff Project, specifically The Story of Bottled Water.
Push your state or city to ban specific single-use plastics. Already, more than 500 cities have ordinances against plastic bags. Twelve states have bans in place. Two more are working in that direction. The number is growing, and the bans are working. Get your local policymakers on the “ban-wagon.”
Money talks. Boycott companies that use excessive plastic packaging. Purchase from businesses that are committed to environmentally friendly practices as well as plastic-free products. Look for B Corp certification. Read the “About” tab on websites. Complain if you receive something with plastic packaging. Buy food not wrapped in plastic.
Currently wending its way through Congress is the bill H.R. 6053: “To amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act to reduce the production and use of certain single-use plastic products and packaging, to improve the responsibility of producers in the design, collection, reuse, recycling, and disposal of consumer products and packaging, to prevent pollution from consumer products and packaging from entering into animal and human food chains and waterways, and for other purposes.” Contact your Representative to advocate for its passage.
Approach this Earth Day—and every day—with gratitude. Our Creator God has gifted us with an amazing planet—not wrapped in plastic. Our faithful response is to cherish and care for this treasure.
The United Methodist Creation Justice Movement is providing these Tips
as a tool to equip church members, families, and individuals to respond to God’s call to care for creation and do justice with our neighbors.
