🌏THE EARTH DAY🌏

It is important to start from the origins of this important event. By the early 1960s, Americans were becoming aware of the effects of pollution on the environment. Rachel Carson’s 1962 bestseller Silent Spring raised the spectre of the dangerous effects of pesticides on the American countryside. Until that time, the number of activists devoted to large-scale issues such as industrial pollution was minimal. Factories pumped pollutants into the air, lakes and rivers with few legal consequences. Only a small portion of the American population was familiar with recycling. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1962, Senator Gaylord Nelson was determined to convince the government that the planet was at risk. He developed the idea for the Earth Day. Nelson announced the Earth Day concept at a conference in Seattle in 1969 and invited the nation to get involved. The date of the first earth day was April 22, 1970. The first Earth Day was focused on the United States. Initially the name of this event was “teach-in” however it did not work well. Koenig, a Madison Avenue giant, proposed various names including his favourite, “Earth Day” which was immediately approved. On April 22, 1990, the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, Earth Day went global, indeed more than 200 million people in 141 countries participated in Earth Day celebrations. The Earth Day has been celebrated on different days by different groups. The United Nations celebrate it on the vernal equinox. The Earth Day 2000 built both global and local conversations, leveraging the power of the Internet to organize activists around the world. Today the Earth Day is recognized as the largest secular celebration in the world. The Earth Day 2020 was to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, due to the pandemic the demonstration was suspended. Over 100 million people have mobilized online to honour the 50th° anniversary of Earth Day. Through Instagram, queen Elizabeth II and the prince of Wales reminded the importance of this day for human health and wellbeing. Earth Day 2021 marked the 51st anniversary of this holiday. Every year a different theme is assigned to the Earth Day to focus, this year’s theme is “Restore Our Earth.” Due again, to the pandemic, the Earth Day has been still digital. Online lectures and movie views were held. Social distancing doesn’t mean that you can’t go outside and enjoy nature, as long as you do so responsibly! Nature is not cancelled! What could we do to support the environment? Recycling, saving water, planting trees and much more. Thanks to the Earth Day people all over the world start to recognize the importance of protecting the Earth’s natural resources—be they oceanic, atmospheric, terrestrial, or biological—for future generations.