Every year, people come together for Earth Day to celebrate the Earth and thank it by taking care of our planet. Earth Day is a great start to taking care of the environment, but it should not just stop there. In order for people to make a real impact on Earth’s environment, we should take care of it every day.

In today’s world, we often think of climate change as the only environmental issue of concern. Some blame natural climate variation for climate change; others blame people. No matter what you choose to believe, there are other concerns to be had for our planet. Recycling and cleaning up polluted areas in our communities could potentially help to create a safer environment for years to come. People are so consumed in what is going to help them right now that they think cleaning up the planet is not really helping anything if they do not see immediate results, but that is simply not true.

According to one Greek proverb, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” We may never directly reap the benefits of taking care of the environment, recycling and working to stop pollution, but someday our children and our grandchildren will be grateful that they have a home in which they can actually live. There is no real downside to cleaning the environment, so there is really no excuse not to do it.

Here in Ames and on our campus, we are known for having a great environment. Even if you are not normally concerned with taking care of the Earth for the “going green” aspect, you could care because prospective students look at this campus. When prospective students — or even prospective employers — walk around and see trash in the trees or pop cans in the lake, it makes us look lazy and careless. Seeing trash everywhere can turn those students and employers away, but there is an easy fix.

Simply clean up after yourself. If nobody on campus littered and everyone learned to recycle, then there would not even be a need for Earth Day. It is easy to do your part by walking to a trash can to throw away your bag of chips rather than cleaning out the trash from your car while driving down the highway. It takes 80 to 100 years for an aluminum can to decompose in a landfill, and it takes plastic even longer — 100 to 400 years. A simple switch to using the same plastic bottle over and over can help reduce the amount of bottles you use.

People have it stuck in their heads that just one person doing something for the environment is not going to make a difference, and they may be right. If only one person does something, not very much is going to get done. That is why it is so important that as many people as possible learn to recycle and to stop polluting. If an entire university works together to be green, that can easily make a difference in our community.

Since elementary school, we have been told that we lead by example. It seems that some of us have lost sight of that concept. If we all work together to take care of the Earth, we could spend Earth Day relaxing and enjoying what the Earth has to offer because it would already be clean.