Yours truly was freshly-minted teen on Earth Day 1970 and helped plant a tree in Lincoln Park along with a class from Taft Junior High School in Marion, Ohio. That tree is still alive and thriving to this day which underscores that every little action makes big impacts! With substantial “hunkering down” occurring many are finding release on trails and in parks (keep social distancing!). People really do want to do good and here’s some ideas from the NPR radio station from Harrisburg. Be sure to check this out this coming Wednesday evening.
Here is the news story from the April 20 edition of PA Environment Digest:
WITF Holds Virtual Earth Day Screening Of Penn’s Woods: Cradle Of Conservation April 22
WITF and its partners will hold a virtual Earth Day screening of the documentary Penn’s Woods: Cradle of Conservation on April 22 at 7:00 p.m. with a Q&A session following.
April 22 marks the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and to celebrate, WITF’s the Cradle of Conservation documentary will take a historic look at how Pennsylvania’s natural resources helped transform the state into an industrial powerhouse.
With economic booms and revolutions in natural resource extraction, came an environmental price.
Pennsylvanians set about restoring the state’s environmental riches and in the process helped shape the national conservation and environmental movements of the twentieth century.
After the screening PA Parks & Forests Foundation President Marci Mowery will moderate a Q&A session with DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Historian Mark Madison and Executive Director of Allegheny County Parks Foundation Caren Glotfelty.
They’ll discuss the film and answer your questions.
The program is being presented in collaboration with the PA Parks and Forests Foundation and Earth Day 50 PA with the support of UGI Utilities.
Click Here to join the event. Join the event a few minutes early to test the connection.
Visit the PA Conservation Heritage website to view this and other WITF documentaries on people and events in Pennsylvania’s conservation history.
Earth Day 50 PA
Learn about more Earth Day anniversary events at the Earth Day 50 PA website.
NATURE NUGGET:
It’s believed that the name “Earth” is around 1,000 years old. If you notice, except for Earth, all of the planets in our solar system are named after Roman and Greek gods and goddesses. One idea of the source of the name is that the word “Earth” is an old Germanic word that really just means “the ground.” Another thought is that the name “Earth” is derived from the Old English word “ertha” as well as the Anglo-Saxon word “erda”, which means soil or ground.
Facts about Earth:
- The shape of the Earth is actually closer to a squashed sphere. It’s fatter in the middle near the equator where gravity pushes to create a bulge.
- Even though you might think you are standing still, the Earth is turning. The speed at the equator is around 1,000 mph.
- The Earth is also moving through the solar system at around 67,000 mph/107,826 kph.
- Earth is constantly recycling its material through tectonic movement which drags surface rocks back down below the surface to become magma and then is spewed back out from volcanoes.
- Earthquakes are the result of tectonic plate movement on the planet. The largest earthquake recorded in the U.S. was in 2016 in Alaska, registered at 9.2 on the Richter Scale; with the largest global earthquake recorded in 1960 in Chile, registering 9.5 on the Richter Scale.
- The hottest recorded temperature location on the Earth is in El Azizia, Libya with temperatures hitting 136 degrees F/57.8 degrees C in 1922.
- The coldest temperature location is in Antarctica with temperatures reaching -100 degrees F/-73 degrees
NATURE QUOTE:
“Porcupine Pat” McKinney is environmental education coordinator for the Schuylkill Conservation District and provides programming for people of all ages with an emphasis on schools, public programming and nature center development. “Porcupine Pat” hails from Marion, Ohio and has a BS with Distinction in Natural Resources – Environmental Interpretation from Ohio State. He is a recipient of the prestigious Sandy Cochran Award for Excellence in Natural Resources Education from the PA Forestry Association, the Schuylkill Pride Award, and the PAEE “Outstanding Environmental Educator Award.”
