The thirsty earth soaks up the rain,
And drinks, and gapes for drink again.
The plants suck in the earth and are
With constant drinking fresh and fair
–Abraham Cowley, English poet (1618–67)
The Earth Day is celebrated around the world on the April 22, usually with outdoor performances, where people willingly perform acts of service to earth. Typical activities include planting trees and plants, picking up roadside trash and organizing recycling and conservation initiatives. On that day, people are more dedicated to sign petitions to governments, demanding actions to stop global warming and other environmentally harmful activities. Earth Day is the largest civic event in the world, celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, religions and nationalities. More than a billion people participate in campaigns every year.
BACKGROUND
The Earth Day was initially founded by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970. With the national day on the environment, he wanted to promote ecology and respect for life on the earth as well as raise awareness of the growing concerns of air, water and soil pollution. Earth Day, born as a product of grassroots actions in rural towns and big cities across the US in 1970, has remained an important annual way to raise awareness of the environmental issues.
In 1990, the Earth Day went global under the guidance of Denis Hayes, an environmental activist and proponent of solar power. This time, 200 million participants in 141 countries were all helping to lift environmental issues onto the world stage. Earth Day 1990 set going worldwide recycling efforts as well as helped to lay foundations for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It also resulted in President Bill Clinton awarding Senator Nelson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995, which is the highest honor given to civilians in the United States – for his commitment and work to themovement.
ACTIVITIES
Every year, over a billion people in 190 countries get involved with Earth Day’s activities. Earth Day is global – people from the UK to Russia, China to Morocco all act on behalf of the environment. Each participating country plans elaborately its own activities, which can be seen international Earth Day webpage. In 2014, Earth Day focused on green cities, mobilizing millions of people to promote greener community lives. Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in the cities, so it is our responsibility to invest in renewable and sustainable energy, rebuild our cities and try to find solutions to the climate change crisis. Nothing is more powerful than collective willingness to create difference and the actions of a billion people!
EARTH DAY 2015
Earth Day Network kicks off U.S. and global activities on massive scale for 45th Anniversary of Earth Day in 2015. Under the network’s leadership, this years’ goal is to reach 1,5 billion acts of green. The network believes that this will be the most environmentally active and important year yet.
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