Earth Day began in 1970 when a perfect storm of public awareness, political will, and dedicated activism converged to create one of the largest demonstrations in human history.
Earth Day is now a global event each year, and more than 1 billion people in 192 countries now take part in what is the largest civic-focused day of action in the world.
It is a day of political action and civic participation. People march, sign petitions, meet with their elected officials, plant trees, clean up their towns and roads. Corporations and governments use it to make pledges and announce sustainability measures. Faith leaders, including Pope Francis, connect Earth Day with protecting God’s greatest creations, humans, biodiversity and the planet that we all live on.
Earth Day Network goals are to:
– Educate and raise awareness about the accelerating rate of extinction of millions of species and the causes and consequences of this phenomenon.
– Achieve major policy victories that protect broad groups of species as well as individual species and their habitats.
– Build and activate a global movement that embraces nature and its values.
– Encourage individual actions such as adopting plant based diet and stopping pesticide and herbicide use.
We may not be able to reverse the damage the past thousands of years have done, but creating new problems for current and future generations are something within our collective control. It's only a matter of civic, financial and political motivation to see these fixes through. This is the spirit and significance that is highlighted in Earth Day celebrations every year on 22 April.
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