Dunedin Celebrates 50th Anniversary Of Earth Day

Press release from the City of Dunedin:

April 21, 2020

Fifty years ago on April 22, 1970, millions of people heard the call to protect our planet from pollution, deforestation, and other destructive effects of increasing human pressure on Earth’s natural resources.
That first Earth Day led to landmark environmental laws in the U.S., including the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts.
Today, with the health of our citizens and our economic and sustainable future at the top of mind we understand that planetary health is human health. We invite you to join us this Earth Day as not only a call to protect our planet, but also ourselves –and the future we share.

The good news is that significant steps are being taken now to address this issue here locally and regionally. We’ve joined the Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency Coalition of almost 30 jurisdictions in the Tampa Bay area, and we’d like to use this Earth Day to recognize our regional efforts – especially air and water quality efforts. The City of Dunedin continues to work on
• Energy efficiency
• Promoting solar energy,
• Expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure,
• Keeping drinking water safe,
• Promoting healthy ecosystems, parks and natural areas
• Pollution control
• Making the overall community a healthier place to live, work and play

“On the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, Dunedin joins the rest of the world in celebrating and continuing to protect this beautiful planet. To that end, the City now has policies in place that ensure clean energy goals, improvements to parks, preserving the tree canopy, along with enhancing overall community health" - Mayor Bujalski

We also want to recognize the important work our neighboring communities are doing to ensure the sustainability of our entire region. In St. Petersburg, they are working to be more energy efficient in their buildings, promoting solar energy, expanding electric vehicle infrastructure and helping the whole community to be a healthier St. Pete. This sustainability and resiliency work is creating clean energy jobs for trades as well as health and equity jobs for local small businesses.
Earth Day is an important opportunity to remember the connection between our health and the health of the environments in which we live. And the evidence of this connection is growing. One of the many ways that climate change impacts health is by affecting the quality of the air we breathe.

Check out the Dunedin Green Scene to learn more and get involved.

Photo credit: ThoughtCo.

This press release was produced by the City of Dunedin. The views expressed here are the author’s own.