Theme: “Reducing Our Footprint with Chemistry”
For years, chemists have been promoting a better world through recyclable plastics, cleaner-burning fuels, phosphate-free detergents, environmental monitoring, and green chemistry initiatives. To promote the positive role that chemistry plays in the world, ACS established the Chemists Celebrate Earth Week (CCEW) public awareness campaign. During CCEW, ACS members and chemistry enthusiasts celebrate by coordinating events and communicating the importance of chemistry. ACS will celebrate Earth Day through CCEW 2021 from April 19-24 with the theme, “Reducing Our Footprint with Chemistry.” Our environmental footprint includes the energy, food, water, and materials we use or leave behind. By reducing our footprint, it means we are living more sustainably. You might wonder why it is important to live sustainably — and there are many reasons. It is probably best described by the expression, “Leave no trace.” This means trying to make sure that the planet stays the way we found it, by not consuming or discarding anything that changes how the planet looks or behaves. To live sustainably, we need to reduce our footprint. How can we do that, and how can chemistry help us? This is the basis of this years CCEW theme.
Earth Day was first officially recognized on April 22, 1970 as a way to demonstrate support for a healthy environment, raise awareness about environmental issues, and remind people that we all need to contribute to a sustainable planet. For years, chemists have been promoting a better world through recyclable plastics, cleaner-burning fuels, phosphate-free detergents, environmental monitoring, and green chemistry initiatives. The ACS joined the Earth Day celebration on April 22, 2003.
The Chemical Society of Washington (CSW) will once again participate in Chemists Celebrate Earth Week (CCEW) activities. However, due to continued global, federal, state, and local governmental directives on social distancing and limitations on gatherings to address the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACS Committee on Community Activities (CCA) will again encourage the planning of virtual events and the sharing of digital resources for CCEW 2021.
The electronic version of the Celebrating Chemistry newsletter for CCEW, as well as additional information about this year’s CCEW celebration, is available from the ACS website (www.acs.org/ccew).
