What is Earth Day

What is Earth Day?
Our Earth Day Guide

In honor of our planet Earth, Earth Day is celebrated around the world on April 22nd of every year. From parades and festivals to community park clean-ups and classroom projects, workshops and seminars to recycling demonstrations, and even film screenings to art exhibits - Earth Day is celebrated in a variety of fun and educational activities, bringing awareness to the cause and effect of pollution and how to prevent it from destroying our planet.

In the early 1960s, back when Americans were guzzling leaded gas through big sedans and town cars, and air pollution was just part of a successful industrial landscape - Senator Gaylord Nelson began a movement to bring environmental problems to the forefront of the political arena. He persuaded President John Kennedy to go on a "national conservation tour". They traveled over eleven states in five days. Although it did not exactly bring the critical issues into the political limelight as hoped, it was the beginning of what is now know as Earth Day.

The Senator spoke on the issues to a variety of audiences throughout most of the states. He found the people in general to be concerned, but not the politicians. It took six years of Senator Nelson speaking to come up with the idea of Earth Day - a grassroots protest.

Taking the idea from the anti-war demonstrations and "teach-ins", Senator Nelson and Denis Hayes - the national coordinator, organized a coast-to-coast demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The story traveled and the response was exciting. On April 22, 1970, over 20 million Americans went out into their communities and demonstrated for a healthy, sustainable environment. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values. The American people finally had a forum to bring environmental concerns to the forefront where the media could generate interest.

In the late 1980s, environmental leaders proposed the idea of organizing a global Earth Day campaign to Denis Hayes. Gaining the support and participation of over 200 million people in over 141 countries, the status of environmental issues made it to the world stage on Earth Day 1990 - giving a much needed boost to recycling efforts worldwide, and paving the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

For Earth Day 2000, Denis Hayes campaigned for global warming and a push for clean energy. This time, with the help of the internet Earth Day 2000 had over 5,000 environmental groups around the world reaching out to hundreds of millions of people in a record 184 countries. The message that citizens arond the world wanted quick and decisive action on clean energy, was sent loud and clear.

Today the fight for a clean environment continues. Be a part of Earth Day and help build a clean, healthy, diverse world for generations to come.

National Earth Day and Environmental Organizations:
* Earth Day Network: www.earthday.net
* Earth 911: www.earth911.org
* Earth Share: www.earthshare.org
* Earth Day Portal for US Government Events & Information: http://www.earthday.gov/
* US Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/earthday/
* Natural Resources Defense Council: http://www.nrdc.org
* Environmental Defense Fund: www.environmentaldefense.org
* Global Green USA: http://globalgreen.org/index.html
* Pew Center on Global Climate Change: www.pewclimate.org/global-warming-basics/
* US Department of Energy: www.eere.energy.gov/
* Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: http://www.ipcc.ch/und
* World Wildlife Fund: www.worldwildlife.org
* The Wilderness Society: http://earthday.wilderness.org/
* Keep America Beautiful: www.kab.org
* Stop Global Warming Virtual March: www.stopglobalwarming.org/