Earth Day-April 22
Today, we celebrate our host, the Earth. Many activities are planned worldwide, in person, and online. Today’s Google Doodle reminds us of climate change: Space.com expands on the illustration.
Chief Seattle of NW Washington state, a leader of Suquamish and Duwamish nations, made a famous speech to Governor Stevens in 1854, purportedly an environmental treatise. Multiple versions of his talk exist, starting with a translated transcription; the subsequent transliterations may veer widely from the original.
Rachel Carson’s concern about pollution and its effects on the Earth, expressed in her 1962 book Silent Spring, heralded the clarion call for change and helped launch the environmental movement.
US Senator Gaylord Nelson put out a call to action in 1969 in response to the massive Santa Barbara, CA, oil spill. Over 20 million Americans demonstrated for increased environmental protections on the first Earth Day in 1970, organized by Denis Hayes.
Shortly thereafter, on December 2, 1970, President Richard Nixon issued an executive order forming the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA subsequently lobbied for the banning of DDT and lead in gasoline, and a promoted a decade of environmental legislation.
Hayes took Earth Day global in 1990, spreading the action to 141 countries and over 200 million people. This event boosted recycling and was the forerunner for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The following decade, 2000, saw truly international activism encompassing hundreds of millions in over 184 nations.
In 2010, the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, about one billion people and 200,000 partners held climate rallies. The Paris Climate Agreement, a climate accord, was signed by 175 countries on Earth Day 2016.
Due to COVID-19, the 50th Anniversary Earth Day event went online for the largest online mass mobilization, a digital action.
This year’s theme is Planet vs. Plastics. Again, numerous events are planned to raise social consciousness of the threats our planet faces and what we can do on a global, national, local, and personal basis.
Did you participate in any Earth Day events, or have you taken any personal initiatives to do your part to protect Mother Earth?
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