Glob­al cli­mate change is hap­pen­ing at an ac­cel­er­at­ing rate, and the im­pacts of this are all around.

Ecosys­tems are slow­ly be­ing de­stroyed, sea lev­els are ris­ing, drown­ing en­tire is­lands and coast­lines, droughts are ren­der­ing ad­vanced agri­cul­tur­al sys­tems in­ef­fec­tive, and ex­treme weath­er is pro­duc­ing in­creas­ing­ly de­struc­tive hur­ri­canes.

Earth Day, which is an an­nu­al event cel­e­brat­ed by more than 192 coun­tries on April 22 each year, is a chance for in­di­vid­u­als to sup­port the move­ment aimed at earth preser­va­tion, and for com­pa­nies to ex­er­cise their cor­po­rate so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. Events that are held in com­mem­o­ra­tion of this day demon­strate to the wider com­mu­ni­ty and the na­tion that en­vi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion is im­por­tant and should be sup­port­ed by all.

With the fore­go­ing in mind, Toy­ota Trinidad and To­ba­go Ltd, in an ef­fort to draw na­tion­al at­ten­tion to the ob­ser­vance of Earth Day, will en­gage in sev­er­al projects to­day to demon­strate its com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing the en­vi­ron­men­tal. A cy­cling clas­sic, an earth walk/run, and tree plant­i­ng ex­er­cise are some of the Earth day ac­tiv­i­ties which the com­pa­ny has planned for to­day.

Toy­ota is en­gaged in a col­lec­tion dri­ve to re­cy­cle 5,000 plas­tic bot­tles to con­struct an Earth Day House which will be lit us­ing so­lar pow­er. The house is on dis­play at Toy­ota's San Fer­nan­do Branch, which will be the cen­tre point of to­day's ac­tiv­i­ties from 7 am to noon.

A cy­cling clas­sic which be­gins at 6.45 am at Toy­ota's Barataria of­fice will end at the San Fer­nan­do branch. This event will pro­mote the re­duc­tion of our so­ci­ety's car­bon foot­print, the com­pa­ny said in a news re­lease. Par­tic­i­pa­tion is open to the pub­lic and reg­is­tra­tion is $20.

At the San Fer­nan­do branch an Earth Walk/Run be­gins at 7 am. A tree-plant­i­ng ex­er­cise will al­so be done at the branch to sus­tain earth preser­va­tion. Ex­hibitors will be on site to ed­u­cate vis­i­tors about the im­por­tance of pre­serv­ing na­ture.

Com­mem­o­ra­tive medals will be giv­en to all par­tic­i­pants of the cy­cling and earth walk events and there will give­aways, Toy­ota said.

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