How Far Have We Gotten From The First Earth Day? - University of Atlanta Explore, Educate & Evolve Campaign

This year was the 45th Earth Day that we all celebrated on 22nd April. Yes! It has been 45 years of celebration of Earth Day so the main question is how far we have gotten from the first Earth Day? Have we achieved the mission we had established for the Earth Day? And most importantly are we doing any better?

Upon discussing the Earth Day we should remember the fact that although pollution and natural resources are important issues to focus on but these issues are the byproduct of our own need for energy that we require to power essential elements of our lifestyle. So we should remember the main issue is discovering and implementing efficient ways to produce this required energy that leads to impacts like pollution and depletion of natural resources.

Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the United States published its ‘annual energy outlook 2015‘ which is the primary source of energy information in the United States. According to the report, we are doing a little better as the reports say that there has been a decline in energy consumption in some sectors due to the adoption of energy-efficient methods.

Renewable energy production is also doing better and the energy-related carbon dioxide emission are stabilized because of using energy efficient methods and shifting to using renewable energy and natural gas thus decreasing carbon related emissions from energy generation. So overall there has been a reduction in the energy intensity which is the amount of energy an American uses per dollar of the United States gross domestic product and there has also been a decrease in carbon related emissions because of the decrease in energy intensity.

Looking forward to 2040, it is estimated that the carbon emission would further decline because of our new energy efficient lifestyle which would include using gasoline for transportation, using renewable energy for space heating and lighting purposes and other energy efficient ways. All these factors considered, Yes! we are on track and are moving in the right direction so the answer to the question is we are indeed doing better that the first Earth Day 45 years ago but we still have a long way to go to achieve the goals that we had established for the Earth Day.

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