Why do we celebrate Earth Day on April 22, every year? Earth day is to bring awareness of climate change, global warming, pollution in the air, & water ways to everyone. We need to protect our environment because the stability of our eco system will affect all of us, our health, and our well-being. We only have one planet… and we need to take care of it.
Earth Day was founded in America by a peace activist, John McConnell, in the early part of 1970. McConnell wanted this to be an annual event to honor the earth and the concept of peace. He wanted this event to be held on the first day of Spring. He recognized this day as “nature’s equipoise” or “Mother Earth Day”. This event was then sanctioned into a proclamation, written by McConnell, and signed by Secretary General U Thant, at the United Nations. The United Nations refers to this day as “Mother Earth Day”.
Contributing more to this event, US Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed the idea to hold a “nationwide teach-in” on April 22, 1970 to educate the public about the environment and the need to protect it. Senator Nelson became involved after seeing so much damage due to the 1969 oil spill off the coast of California. There was so much pollution in the air and water that he felt the need to do something about it. He hired an activist, Denis Hayes, to help him with this project. Hayes became the National Coordinator to head up the project and he had a thousand of participants that helped create this event. Nelson and Hayes renamed the annual event to “Earth Day”, and this day was then destinated to be held every April 22.
The first “Earth Day teach-ins” took place in two thousand Colleges & Universities, ten thousand primary and secondary schools and hundreds of communities across the United States. This event brought 20 million Americans out into the springtime air & sunshine for a peaceful demonstration in favor of environmental reform. Even the White House got involved in the demonstration. The President and First Lady, Richard and Pat Nixon, planted a tree on the White House lawn.
Earth Day is now recognized as the largest civic event in the world. The first Earth Day was in the United States, but it has gone international and is observed in 192 countries. It is celebrated by more than a billion people every year. Earth Day created public support for the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which contributed to other acts such as: The Clean Air Act, The Water Quality Improvement Act, The Endangered Species Act, and several other environmental acts.
2020 was the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many planned activities were moved online, there was a three-day live stream event commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day in the United States. These activities centered around five components: Citizen science, volunteering, community engagement, education, and the role of art in furthering the cause. We can join the cause and do our part to help protect our planet.
There are so many things that you can do with a little research and a lot of them are in your own neighborhood. 4Oceans There are several companies that you can donate too or help, one of my favorites it
It was founded by a couple of surfer guys. They got tired of finding so much trash, especially plastics, in the ocean while surfing. They traveled all over the world to surf and they kept finding beaches and ocean just littered with trash. They also found many ocean animals hurt or even killed by the trash that the animals encountered. Items thrown in the oceans and lakes harm the animals and the environment which in turn affects us. The surfers started cleaning the ocean and coastlines “one pound at a time”. They developed a business by doing this. They do not take donations, but they sell products, some of which is made from the plastics they pick up. They sell bracelets, face masks, reusable water bottles, tote bags, tee-shirts, and so much more. For every product sold they pull a pound of trash out of the oceans and coastlines. Also 1% of their revenue is donated to a non-profit environmental conservation organization.
You can donate or get involved with other organization such as:
There are so many organizations out there that would appreciate your help. Our planet will thank you.
