Chief Operating Officer Lisa Miller said the museum came up with their new "Small Actions Spark Big Changes" intitative because their patrons kept asking what they could do individually to help the environment. "The thought was, 'Let's give people an idea every month through the entire year and look at both what our staff is doing, what our scientists and researchers are doing.'"
The museum is also asking the public to share what they're doing to make positive change and inspire others. 10-year-old Mia Cybulski, of Jennings Elementary School in Haddon Township, New Jersey, wrote on a board at the museum about the small actions she can take to recycle.
Asked her biggest concern about the environment, she responded, "The animals and pollution and how the animals are dying in the ocean because we're polluting the oceans."
Museum scientist Stefanie Kroll agreed that's a valid concern. "We've lost about 60 percent of our wildlife over the last 40 years," she said, "and that's even worse in the oceans, and it's the worst in our freshwater habitats."
10-year-old Isaiah Thatcher said he was most concerned about climate change, which is next month's topic.
"I'm really worried about the Australian wildfires now because more than one billion animals were killed," he said. "It's not a good thing because Australia is unique and it has lots of different kinds of animals that other places don't have, and if that goes away then like three generations later, they'll be like, 'What's a koala?'"
As they approach the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, the museum will be partnering with United By Blue for a series of river clean-ups in March, April and May. Miller said their goal is to remove 25,000 pounds of trash from the Delaware River.