What Date Is Earth Week? How to Celebrate

Earth Day is April 22nd, but many people extend the celebration to make it Earth Week. Earth Week usually runs from April 16th to Earth Day, April 22nd. The extended time allows students to spend more time learning about the environment and the problems we face. Sometimes when Earth Day falls in the middle of the week, people chose to select that Sunday through Saturday to observe the holiday.

How to Celebrate Earth Week

What can you do with Earth Week? Make a difference! Try making a small change that will benefit the environment. Keep at it all week so that by the time Earth Day arrives it might become a lifelong habit. Here are ideas for ways to celebrate Earth Week:

• Use the full week. Start by identifying an environmental concern in your home or community. Make a plan to improve the situation. Ask yourself what you can do. Can you do it by yourself or do you need help from friends or permission from someone? Put your plan into action, get out there, and make a change.​
• Get educated. Set aside time during Earth Week to read up on ecology and the environment. Learn how to save energy and about what you can recycle.
• Start a journal to track changes you make and the impact they make. For example, how much trash did you take out last week? Start recycling and choosing products that don't waste packaging, grow some of your own food, compost what you can. How much does that impact your trash? Did you make energy efficiency change? How did that affect your utility bills from one month to the next?
• Identify areas where you and your family are wasteful. How can you reduce the waste? Do you have items you no longer use that you could donate to other people? Once you find a problem, find a solution and act on it.
• Turn down the thermostat on your water heater. Even a couple of degrees makes a big difference in energy consumption. Similarly, adjusting your home thermostat up a degree in the summer or down a degree in the winter won't really affect your comfort, but will save energy.
• If you water your lawn, plan to water it in the early morning to make the best use of the resource. Consider ways to make your yard "greener." This has nothing to do with the color of grass and everything to do with reducing the energy required for upkeep and finding ways to use the space outside your home to enhance the environment. Adding trees, for example, can dramatically affect heating and cooling costs and lower the amount of water needed to keep grass healthy.
• Replace light bulbs with ones that are energy efficient. Even if you can only switch out one bulb, it can save energy.
• Start composting or start a garden.
• Plant a tree!
• Lend a helping hand. Volunteer to help recycle or pick up litter.

Of course, what matters is not when you celebrate Earth Week, but that you celebrate Earth Week! Some countries turn this into a month-long celebration, so there is Earth Month rather than just Earth Day or Earth Week.

Sources

• Bastian, Jonathan (April 21, 2017). "How the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill sparked Earth Day." KCRW. 
• Wright, Sylvia (July 1980). "Canada's First Earth Day Scheduled for Sept. 11." The Kingston Whig Standard.