Earth Day is an
annual celebration
that honors the achievements of the environmental movement and raises
awareness of the need to protect Earths natural resources for future
generations. Earth
Day is celebrated on April 22 in the United States and on either
April 22 or the day the spring equinox occurs throughout the rest
of the world.
Environmental activism during the 1960s inspired Wisconsin Sen.
Gaylord Nelson to create a national celebration uniting the
environmental movement. With the help of Denis Hayes, a graduate
student at Harvard University, Nelson organized the first Earth Day
on April 22, 1970, educating participants in the importance of
environmental conservation. Attended by 20
million people across the United States, the event strengthened
support for legislation such as the
Clean Air Act
(updated in 1970) and the Endangered Species Act (1973).
In 1990, Hayes organized a global Earth Day, with more than 200
million participants in more than 140 countries. Earth Day now
brings together citizens and activists from around the world to
raise awareness and take action regarding such environmental
concerns as global warming and renewable energy.
Today, the Earth Day Network
(EDN), which brings together more than 20,000 partners and
organizations in 190 countries, supports the Earth Day mission
year-round. This mission is founded on the premise that all people,
regardless of race, gender, income, or geography, have a moral right to a healthy,
sustainable environment. The Earth Day Network pursues this mission
through education, public policy, and activism
campaigns. These campaigns bring together more than 1 billion
participants every year, making it one of the largest public,
secular events in the
world.
The Earth Day Network pursues a set of core goals:
- Broaden the meaning of environment to include issues
such as climate change, green
schools and environmental curricula, green jobs, and renewable
energy;
- Diversify the movement by providing civic
engagement opportunities at the local, state, national and global
levels around the world. Recognizing that climate change impacts
our most vulnerable citizens first and most severely, EDN often
works with low-income communities to bring their voices and issues
into the movement.
- Mobilize communities by working with partner
organizations to provide opportunities for all citizens to become
active in the environmental movement.
Earth Days Core Issues
This set of goals underlines Earth Day events and actions around
the world, which can be organized into ten core issues.
Advocacy: Supporters encourage individuals and
organizations to meet with elected officials to discuss
environmental issues. The online program "Million Acts of Green,"
for instance, encourages visitors to adopt lifestyle changes such
as composting, reducing your carbon footprint, or recycling
e-waste.
Climate Change: Supporters raise awareness about
climate change, human contribution to those changes, and
opportunities to slow the phenomenon. Many Earth Day
supporters, for instance, encourage citizens to support the
landmark Paris Climate agreement, set to be signed on Earth Day
2016.
Conservation & Biology: Supporters work to conserve the
world's biodiversity. On
Earth Day 2010, for instance, participants in Sri Lanka planted
more than 100 medicinal plants throughout the
tropical rain forest at Yagirala Forest Reserve. These plants can
be used by local populations and will create habitats for different organisms,
enhancing the biodiversity of the island nation.
Education: Earth Day education programs provide educators,
students, and the general public with resources and solutions to
create a healthier, more sustainable planet. On Earth Day 2010, for
instance, teachers and students in the Compostela Valley region of
the Philippines participated in a day-long conference. At the
conference, they learned about tree planting and care, participated
in nature hikes, and presented their environmental action projects
to the community.
Energy: Advocates support projects that
develop renewable energy sources and technologies as means of
transitioning off of nonrenewable sources, such as coal and oil. Citizens of Qatar, for
example, are invited to switch off their power for one hour on
Earth Day in a symbolic stance against human
contributions to global warming.
Food & Agriculture:
Supporters raise awareness about some farming practices, such as the use
of chemical pesticides, which contribute to
environmental degradation. Supporters also
advocate for a greater support of organic, local, and sustainable
agricultural techniques. Member organizations of this issue group
include Articultores, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
which raises awareness about urban gardening and brings
citizens and youth together to plant in abandoned sites in
cities.
Green Economy:
Supporters advocate for the creation of green industries and jobs
that are connected to renewable energy sources. For example, the
Students in Free Enterprise group in Saskatchewan, Canada, sponsors
a prize for student projects that make best use of recycled
materials.
Green Schools: The Earth Day Network sponsors the National
GREEN Schools Campaign. The GREEN Schools Campaign includes a focus
on healthy school lunches, environmental classroom activities,
outreach to local and national leaders, and an emphasis on
sustainable building techniques.
Recycling & Waste Reduction: Supporters work to reduce the
amount of waste that people produce, and increase the amount that
we recycle and reuse. The Beach Bunch group of Brunei, for
example, organizes beach-cleaning campaigns.
Sustainable Development: Supporters promote environmental
practices that respect biodiversity and the natural world. Costa
Rica, for instance, has implemented the Viaje Limpio
program, in which individuals and companies pay a fee for the
greenhouse gases they
produce through travel. This money goes to protect the rain forest,
water resources, and biodiversity of Costa Rica. Viaje
Limpio helps the Costa Rican economy, because biodiversity and
the rain forest are important natural assets that bring thousands
of tourists to the
country every year.
In only 40 years, Earth Day has evolved from a single day
celebrating the environmental movement in the United States to a
global network that empowers more than a billion people to better
understand, protect, and improve the environment.
