Two years ago, I wrote about Earth Day, which occurs every year on April 22 was the 50th anniversary and I wrote about the history of the event and things to do personally to help the earth.

Lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic had been in effect for one month. Little did we know that two years in the future it would still be with us. Panic buying was in full swing for items like toilet paper, hand sanitizer and cleaning products.

Surgical masks were in short supply, and N95s were practically non-existent, so homemade cloth ones were the fashion statement of the day.

Now two years into the pandemic and approaching close to a million deaths in the US and over 6 million worldwide, a tragedy to families and communities all over the world, social schisms between those who follow science and the conspiracy wallowing deniers, closed businesses and economic disruption, there seems to be a glimpse of a future where Covid may not be beaten but lived with.

But what has been the impact on the environment from the pandemic?

The silver lining in the lockdown was a huge drop in air pollution as car and airplane trips diminished or stopped. That has come back up as people went back to work in person and started to travel again.

People spent more time in their gardens and walked to local parks and preserves to escape from the walls of home closing in and to get some fresh air. With almost no air traffic, cars or non-essential activities like landscaping, quiet prevailed.

The sounds of nature were audible without the constant background hum of a busy metropolitan area. Birdwatching boomed as a hobby. Gardening became a big activity, as did bread baking.

Drops in tourism gave the ecology of areas of natural beauty time to recover and the waste, electricity demand, sewage and other pollutants associated with tourism, reduced to near zero.

This allowed even heavily polluted areas like the Grand Canal in Venice and the Ganges River in India to recover to levels of water purity unseen in decades.

On the negative side for the environment, was a huge increase in medical waste, all types of PPE, and littering of items like masks and gloves. These items entangled birds and animals and ended up in natural areas and waterbodies.

Recycling rates dropped. Disinfectants were indiscriminately applied to indoor and outdoor surfaces, washing into nearby waterbodies and potentially harming creatures living there.
For Earth Day 2022 the long laundry list of personal changes to make the earth a little greener from 2020 still holds true today.

You can visit the official Earth Day website for ideas, https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2022/ and I’ll recap my top 20.
1. Use a 10% nitrogen 50% soluble fertilizer on your lawn and compost to feed your plants.
2. Add some clover to your lawn – it fixes nitrogen into the soil and feeds the grass.
3. Keep litter, leaves, clippings and runoff water out of the street or it will end up in the Bay.
4. Observe watering restrictions, make sure sprinklers are not running off or hitting the road.
5. Make sure outdoor lighting doesn’t shine up, light pollution is a real thing
6. Plant native flowers, grasses or trees, they require less water and fertilizer and sustain native birds and wildlife. The North Shore Audubon Society and Friends of Garvies Point Museum are holding their annual benefit Native plant sale. You can find the order form and lots of information here: https://www.garviespointmuseum.com/native-plant-sale.php
7. Try a vegetarian recipe. Switching to a plant-based diet is one of the top individual actions you can take to address climate change
8. Research joining a CSA this summer (Community Supported Agriculture)
9. Chose a Fair Trade, shade grown coffee
10. Turn heat down at night to 60
11. Only run full loads of laundry or dishes
12. Turn off water while brushing your teeth or washing dishes
13. Make sure your fridge, freezer, and dryer air vents are clean
14. Insulate accessible hot water pipes. The first 6 feet make the most difference.
15. Ask yourself, “Do I need this or just want it?”
16. Put up a bird feeder and learn to identify your backyard birds
17. Start a nature journal
18. Make a butterfly feeder; Mourning Cloaks, Cabbage Whites and Sulphurs have hatched
19. Take a walk around your yard or neighborhood, collect natural materials and make a collage
20. Make Earth Day every day! The survival of the planet depends on each one of us doing our part. We can all do better and if we don’t future generations will pay the price.