Celebrate the 52nd Anniversary of Earth Day and GROW in Style
Celebrate Earth Week from April 18 to 22!
The 52nd anniversary of Earth Day is coming up on Friday, April 22! Earth Day celebrates Earth’s natural resources and promotes awareness of individual and collective actions that enable a healthy planet. This year, the theme for Earth Day is “Invest in Our Planet.” What will you do? At NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the Greening and Restoring Our World (GROW) Employee Resource Group has organized an entire week dedicated to promoting and practicing Earth stewardship. Other NASA centers and the Houston community have also planned Earth Day events to celebrate.
Check out NASA’s Earth Day page.
Before humanity ventured to the Moon, our view of our home planet consisted of what we could see from horizon to horizon. It was not until this stunning photo (along with many others) came back to Earth with the Apollo 8 astronauts in late December 1968 that we saw Earth as a vibrant, delicate, blue-and-white globe framed by the velvety blackness of space. Credits: NASA
Scroll for a comprehensive list of Earth Week events online and in person.
Happening at Johnson Space Center
Monday, April 18, at noon – 60th Anniversary Panel by GROW
Virtual
As JSC celebrates its 60th anniversary this year and Earth Day this week, GROW invites you to delve into past successes in cross-directorate collaboration for Earth stewardship. This panel is meant to inspire future cross-directorate collaborations. Hear from Center Operations Director Joel Walker, the Engineering Directorate's Michael Ewert, Exploration Integration and Science Directorate's Richard Davis, and Environmental Office's Jeni Morrison. The panel will cover a variety of accomplishments, including the onset of the free-range bikes program, solar golf carts, creating labs through re-use, and reducing hazardous waste. Join us and share your own cross-directorate successes!
Join through Microsoft Teams: Click here to join the meeting
Tuesday, April 19, at noon – Super-Trees Talk by Houston Wilderness
Virtual
Join Houston Wilderness' Deborah January-Bevers to learn about Houston’s "super-trees." Come by to better understand the ecological services of these much-loved flora. This talk is based on a study conducted by Houston Wilderness and Rice University to quantify the benefits of native species and to identify the trees that can best support resilience amidst a changing climate.
Join through Microsoft Team: Click here to join the meeting
Thursday, April 21 at 1:00pm – Green Homes Talk
Virtual
The average American spends about eight waking hours at home every day, and that number surely increased as more of us telework. In addition, residential energy accounts for about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Join us to learn how to make the place where we spend the most time greener.
Join through Microsoft Teams: Click here to join the meeting
Friday, April 22, 9 a.m. – On-Site Tree Planting
In person
GROW will be planting 68 native trees donated by Trees for Houston at the Astronaut Jogging Trail to reforest the area. These trees will benefit the community by improving air and water quality, sequestering carbon, absorbing excess water, and providing wildlife habitats and shade. Tree species include Live Oaks, Red Maples, American Sycamores, Bald Cypresses, and Green Ashes. This event complements the Super-trees Talk by Houston Wilderness on Tuesday.
Friday, April 22, 5:30 p.m. – Sustainable Clothing Happy Hour
In person
Join the sustainable clothing happy hour at the Magpies & Peacocks warehouse in East Downtown. Magpies & Peacocks is a nonprofit warehouse and design house dedicated to collecting and reusing post-consumer clothing, scrap textiles, and accessories from landfills to disrupt the fashion industries’ waste cycle and mitigate the environmental and societal impact created by our clothing. Feel free to bring family and friends — all guests are welcome!
For carpool organizing, join the Microsoft Teams conversation.
Address: 908 Live Oak Street, Houston, 77003
This January 2022 image shows the first rays of an orbital sunrise as seen from the International Space Station as it orbited above Venezuela. Credits: NASA
Additional Ways to GROW: Events with Other NASA Centers and the Community
Online
Monday, April 18, 12:30 p.m. – Earth from the ISS
Ever wonder what it’s like to see our planet from space? NASA’s astronauts will take you on a journey to the International Space Station (ISS), exploring the life-changing experience of an orbital perspective. View Earth as you’re never seen it before — through the eyes of an astronaut.
“It is heart-stopping. It is soul pounding. It is breathtaking.” – NASA Astronaut T.J. Creamer
Join through Microsoft Teams: Click here to join the meeting
Tuesday, April 19, at 7 p.m. – Patagonia “Newtok Will Remain” Virtual Conversation
After decades of government inaction put them in the direct path of a slow-moving climate disaster, the Indigenous village of Newtok, Alaska, may still be able to keep their community intact, but their future hinges on the political will of those in power and finding the money to build a new village.
Join us on Tuesday, April 19, for a conversation with Newtok resident and film subject Della Carl; her father George Carl, Yup’ik culture bearer; professor at the University of Alaska in Anchorage Marie Meade; and Newtok filmmakers Andrew Burton and Michael Kirby Smith. This event will be moderated by Dallas Goldtooth, activist, cultural educator, and actor.
RSVP to this event here.
April 18 to April 24 – Chicago Virtual One Earth Film Festival
Join the City of Chicago virtually for more powerful films and discussions in a weeklong celebration of Earth Day. Watch films and participate in engaging conversations that will help you understand topical issues and move toward concrete actions to mitigate climate change, address environmental justice, and more.
Click here to learn more.
Thursday, April 21, at 12:30 p.m. – Regenerative Agriculture
American farmer Gabe Brown on regenerative agriculture, a double feature: “Five Ways to Save Our Soil” (4.5 minutes) and “Regenerative Agriculture” interview, 28 minutes). Brown took over the family farm outside Bismarck, North Dakota, using the same family practices used since the 1950s: tillage, chemicals, and conventional grazing practices, considered the highest standards in modern agriculture. After four years of freak storms with resulting crop failures and livestock deaths, he almost lost the farm. He decided to try to regenerate his farm using holistic management practices and today runs a thriving and successful farm.
Join through Microsoft Teams: Click here to join the meeting
Thursday, April 28, at 10 a.m. – Bill Nye Talk: Protecting the Planet Wherever You Are
In recognition of National Take Your Children to Work Day and Earth Month, grab the kids and join Bill Nye the Science Guy and Federal Chief Sustainability Officer Andrew Mayock online for a lively discussion on how you can protect the planet wherever you are — at home, at work, and in your community.
This is the second event of the Sustainability Speaker Series for the Federal Community hosted by the White House Office of the Federal Chief Sustainability Officer. Through this series, federal employees will enhance their sustainability and climate literacy and learn about President Biden’s Federal Sustainability Plan and their critical role in the shift to more sustainable and resilient operations.
Nye is an American science educator, engineer, television presenter, and inventor with a mission to help foster a scientifically literate society.
Register with the Federal Sustainability Office page.
Friday, April 22, at 9:30 a.m. – Virtual Earth Day Event at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA Goddard will host an online Earth Day event featuring live webinars, games, chats with NASA experts, and more. Former astronaut Don Thomas will speak at 9:30 a.m.
Registration is required here. Content will also be available until May 2.
In Person
Wednesday, April 20, 9:30 a.m. – Houston Botanic Garden Earth Week Butterfly Walk
The garden’s natural and cultivated areas provide food and habitat to insects and butterflies of all kinds. Spring is a wonderful time to view butterflies emerging from winter dormancy or returning from over-wintering grounds.
During Earth Week, join us for a one-hour walk to spot, identify, and learn about butterflies. You will also learn how to attract butterflies and other important pollinators to your own garden.
The Butterfly Walk is included in general admission to the garden (which is $12.50/adult on April 20), but space is limited to the first 20 participants, so advanced registration is required.
Wednesday, April 20, 6:30 p.m. – Buffalo Bayou Park Wellness Walk
Join Buffalo Bayou Partnership on a free wellness walk led by Laura Conely, founder of Urban Paths. Anyone and everyone is invited to walk through the paths of Buffalo Bayou Park while discussing topics like mental and physical health, as well as the benefits of being exposed to nature.
The walk departs at 6:30 p.m. at 105 Sabine Street and covers three miles in one-and-a-half hours.
More information can be found here.
April 1 to Sept 30 – Plastic Film Challenge
Help Johnson compete against NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in collecting 500 pounds of plastic film (grocery bags, zip-close bags, bubble wrap, toilet paper overwrap, and more). This is a collaboration with the University of Houston-Clear Lake and Galveston Bay Area Texas Master Naturalists. If we meet our goal, the community will receive a bench!
For more information on what can be recycled and our progress, visit the Plastic Film Challenge page.
Please drop off clean, dry film in the designated boxes located at:
- Building 1 - in vending area with other recycling collection bins
- Building 11 - by the restrooms
- Building 30 - by the vending machines at the entrance leading to the mall
- Building 31 - by paper recycling at the bottom of the stairs
- Building 36 - by the vending machines on the first floor near the men's restroom
- Building 36 - large box in the Building 36 high bay (outside of laboratory 1010A)
- Building 45 - lobby by recycling bins
- Building 420 - front loading dock
- Gilruth - by Studio 1 near the front desk
- Jacobs Building - near the atrium
To learn how ocean water is melting glaciers, NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland mission extensively surveyed the coastline of the world’s largest island. The airborne mission found that Greenland's glaciers that empty into the ocean, like Apusiaajik Glacier shown here, are at greater risk of rapid ice loss than previously understood. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Volunteering
Saturday, April 23, 9 a.m. – Galveston Bay Foundation Prairie Planting
Make a hands-on difference for your bay this Earth Month! Help restore coastal prairie habitat and plant a bioswale at our headquarters in Kemah. All ages are welcome (but children under 18 must have an adult guardian participate with them). Pre-registration is required to participate. Space is limited.
Register here.
Saturday, April 30, 9 a.m. – Volunteer at the Houston Parks Sims Bayou Ribbon-Cutting Event
Come enjoy a community celebration with us at the ribbon-cutting event for the Sims 01 C. This event is adjacent to the Botanic Gardens and will honor the opening of the Bayou Greenway Trail moving west from Glenbrook Park through Reveille Park to Telephone Road.
More information here.
Share Socially
Life on Earth is chaotic and complex, and endlessly beautiful.
While NASA tirelessly looks outward searching for life among the stars, we also study our own planet for lessons on understanding life here and in the universe. Earth is home to a breathable atmosphere, a water cycle, frozen ice caps, and rich ecosystems teeming with microbes, plants, and animals. It’s also home to us — 7.9 billion humans.
Connect this Earth Day by posting on social media an image of yourself, your pets, your favorite place, or even just text and tag it with #NASAEarthling to show off what makes life on our planet truly special. (Hint. It’s you!)
We even have a simple sign to print out or display on your mobile device to tell the world: “I’m a #NASAEarthling from [your place] and I love my planet.”
You can use the templates HERE for your photo or decorate your digital image with text and emojis and, if you want, share your general location (state, province, country).
On Earth Day, our collective images will show the stunning breadth and variety of life that persists, survives, and thrives right here on Earth.
A mock-up example of an Instagram social media post for Earth Day 2022. Credits: NASA
