Fiftieth anniversary celebrations of Earth Day on April 22nd will certainly look a lot different this year. But despite the coronavirus pandemic, there is still much to celebrate. For reasons we would not have chosen, most of us are giving Earth a chance to renew. Due to global stay-at-home orders, we have significantly reduced air pollution as a direct result of decreased, if not obsolete, traffic congestion. And in so many other ways, we are saying thank you to Mother Earth daily, probably without even realizing it.
Perhaps you have been outside for a walk more than you would have before the sudden halt in society. Or your family is enjoying hiking and biking more frequently. You go on nature walks to escape the confined walls and explore more intently. And with these new or more frequent activities, we notice the birds are louder and our sense of smell is greater; we are breathing deeper and letting the breeze touch us instead of looking away afraid of a bad hair day, saying, “Thank you Earth. We respect you.”
Without even realizing it, you may already be celebrating Earth Day 2020 in your own ways. But what could be a longer lasting thank-you to Earth, is that once the coronavirus pandemic is behind us, we continue to say thank you and appreciate Mother Earth in all the same ways.
Here are some other ways you can celebrate Earth Day, April 22, 2020 virtually:
People in Virginia reported seeing a Ford van driving around completely autonomously. This regular looking van didn’t sport any large sensors or cameras, nor did it appear to have a human driver behind the wheel as it cruised through regularly trafficked streets. Joke’s on the onlookers though, because the car was not autonomous at all. In fact, there was actually a human driver controlling the vehicle. He went unnoticed, however, because he was dressed as a car seat! It appears the stunt is part of an experiment being conducted about how people interact with autonomous vehicles on the road. Personally, I’d probably just start taking a video.
The holidays are upon us. Halloween just passed. Thanksgiving is right around the corner. And immediately following Thanksgiving is the retail holiday of Black Friday. People everywhere flock to retail stores early Friday morning after Thanksgiving, or some people even queue up Thanksgiving night in order to get large discounts on consumer goods. That simply won’t do for one man in Texas, however. In an effort to ensure he receives Best Buy’s Black Friday deals this year, he set up a tent and got in line seventeen days early. That’s right. Seventeen days of camping outside of a Best Buy. They do usually have pretty good deals, but that’s a whole other level of FOMO.
It’s about to get easier for Europeans to drive electric vehicles. Automaker giants BMW, Ford, Daimler and Volkswagen are teaming up to create high-powered charging stations across Europe. The charging stations will work with many of today’s electric vehicles. They plan to have twenty stations by the end of this year, and they are aiming to have fifty by the end of 2018. Making it easier for people to take their electric vehicles on longer road trips.
We’ve seen fossil fuel powered vehicles. Steam powered, electric, even solar powered transportation. Now, a 38-year-old man has decided to try helium as his transportation power source. Reminiscent of the movie “Up,” this man, using a lawn chair and a hundred helium-filled balloons, soared for a distance of over fifteen miles while floating eight thousand feet above the ground. The flight took place in South Africa. Although dangerous and not a reliable source of transportation, it certainly makes for a fun story. Even if it’s not recommended or practical for your daily commute.
