Earth Day is one of the largest secular holidays on Earth. It can be celebrated in many ways such as planting trees, cleaning up garbage, protesting, etc. The purpose of this celebration is to combat things like climate change, pollution, and anything that hurts the environment in any way. But how did this holiday come to be?
In the early 1960s concerns about the environment spread throughout the country. As these concerns rose, a big protest like the first Earth Day became certain. The date for this protest ended up being April 22nd 1970. It was first organized by Gaylord Nelson, a senator from Wisconsin with the help of Denis Hayes, a Harvard student. That day in 1970, roughly 20 million people across the US went to the streets to protest. The protest was so big that in the same year the United States Environmental Protection Agency was introduced and several environmental laws were passed in response to it.
Earth Day kept being celebrated year after year, and is still celebrated on April 22nd 53 years later. What was once an event celebrated only in the US is now celebrated worldwide. It’s safe to say the Earth Day celebration is not going away anytime soon. We have made much progress in awareness and legislation in the US since the 1970s, but there is still more work to be done so Earth Day will continue being celebrated.
Earth Day reminds us that even if you can’t see it personally, pollution does affect the environment in ways that could take thousands of years to undo. Additionally, it is important to recognize that while Earth Day is a great day to spend time caring for the environment, so is every other day. Earth Day is just one day, but the Earth itself is around all year so we should put efforts into protecting it everyday. Even just recycling and trying to limit the amount of waste you produce can help protect our precious planet!
Sources:
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/earth-day/
