Earth Day celebrations in Hudson County and beyond this weekend highlight the importance of everyone doing whatever we can in our own lives and at the ballot box to preserve and protect Mother Earth.
Community cleanups are happening today on Martin Luther King Drive in Jersey City, throughout Bayonne and Kearny, and along the Hackensack River in Secaucus. (Look for the citywide Great Jersey City Cleanup from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 18.)
In addition, festivals to raise awareness are being held today at Monroe Center Plaza in Hoboken and in Lincoln Park and Historic Jersey City and Harsimus Cemetery, both in Jersey City.
Whether it’s picking up litter, planting a native garden, pledging to do better with recycling, thinking twice before throwing out that gently worn pair of jeans, redoubling your efforts to always have bags with you at the market, or any of a globe’s worth of ideas, it’s important to make even incremental changes that will mean less garbage, less plastic and less pollution.
At the same time, keeping informed on the really big picture issues, electing officials who promise to act against climate change and holding political leaders accountable is a must.
Here in Hudson, we need to keep banging the drum for more responsible development that stops overburdening our water and sewerage infrastructure. We need to be supportive of flood resiliency projects. We need to pressure officials, particularly those in the inner cities, to plant more trees and find and set aside more green space instead of allowing the shoehorning of new developments in every nook and cranny.
We need to be ever vigilant against the threats to Liberty State Park and we cannot abide unlawful green space seizures like the situation in North Bergen where decades-old preschool trailers sit on what should be parkland.
We need to know and believe we deserve better than lead pipes in our water systems, Superfund sites in our backyards, and daily traffic jams that leave cars and trucks idling on our blocks.
Every day should be Earth Day. Taking time this weekend and on Earth Day itself, Monday, to raise our own and others’ awareness is a good way to start.
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