10 Surprising Facts About Earth Day

More than 8 billion individuals inhabit Earth, and shortly a springtime vacation will remind them of the necessity to maintain their residence.

Earth Day, which takes place on April 22, dates again to 1970, when U.S.-based organizers have been hoping to convey consciousness to the environmental degradation they have been witnessing throughout the nation. Since then, recognition of the vacation has expanded to greater than 190 nations who’ve added Earth Day to their calendar. 

The vacation is each a grim reminder of the work that should be finished and a celebration of the progress that has been made in the case of local weather change efforts. It is also been the catalyst for actions together with the creation of worldwide local weather agreements and environmental companies.

This 12 months’s theme is Planet vs. Plastics, which calls on authorities leaders, companies, and on a regular basis individuals to cut back plastic manufacturing by 60% by 2040. It’s also calling for the full elimination of single use plastics by the tip of this decade. 

“The phrase atmosphere means what surrounds you. Within the case of plastics we’ve turn into the product itself—it flows by means of our blood stream, adheres to our inner organs, and carries with it heavy metals recognized to trigger most cancers and illness,” said Kathleen Rogers, President of earthday.org. “The Planet vs. Plastics marketing campaign is a name to arms, a requirement that we act now to finish the scourge of plastics and safeguard the well being of each dwelling being upon our planet.”  

Listed here are 10 fascinating info about Earth Day. 

Earth Day was created by a senator

Gaylord Nelson, a Democratic senator from Wisconsin, was rising more and more involved over the state of the U.S. atmosphere within the Sixties. After a large oil spill in Santa Barbara, Calif. in January 1969, he had the thought to launch a nationwide, environmentally-focused teach-in on faculty campuses, drawing inspiration from the anti-war actions towards the Vietnam Conflict occurring on campuses across the nation. Nelson recruited Denis Hayes, a younger activist, to assist convey the thought to the general public.

The concept for Earth Day got here after a sequence of environmental catastrophes 

Hayes, one of many organizers behind the primary Earth Day, previously told TIME that the thought behind the vacation got here following various occasions that drew consideration to the atmosphere, together with the discharge of Rachel Carson’s guide Silent Spring in 1962 and the 1969 Cuyahoga River fire. Hayes mentioned that whereas there have been various teams within the U.S. engaged on completely different environmental points—to cut back air air pollution, convey consideration to the impression of pesticides on farm employees, and extra—they’d by no means labored in conjunction. 

“What we did was take all of these myriad strands, together with wildlife safety points, and wove all of them collectively. It sounds unusual in the present day, however again then, the oldsters concerned with these numerous causes didn’t consider themselves as having something in widespread with each other,” he informed TIME in 2019. “Nobody was asking that query on the finish of the Nineteen Seventies.”

Greater than 20 million individuals participated within the first Earth Day

Thousands and thousands of individuals participated within the first Earth Day celebration on April 22, 1970. The occasion shut down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, as individuals demonstrated and took part in road clean-ups. 

“The vacation temper on Fifth Avenue was exemplified by members of the architectural agency of Warner, Burns, Toan & Lunde, who unfold a yellow and‐white quilt on the asphalt close to 57th Avenue, put a tulip in a wine bottle for a centerpiece and loved a picnic within the solar. A laughing crowd gathered round them and sang, ‘Completely satisfied Earth Day to You,’” the New York Times reported that day.

Earth Day is on April 22 due to faculty schedules

The date for Earth Day was largely dictated by the schedules of the faculty college students Hayes and Nelson have been hoping to draw. April 22 fell on a weekday through the faculty 12 months—nestled between spring break and closing exams, when the climate was gentle sufficient to permit individuals to be exterior. 

The Environmental Safety Company was created after the primary Earth Day

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which regulates mechanisms to guard the atmosphere, was created on Dec. 2, 1970 as a direct response to the primary Earth Day. Congress fashioned the company after witnessing the massive participation in Earth Day demonstrations throughout the nation, the EPA says. 

“Final 12 months some mentioned there would by no means be one other Earth Day. They noticed concern for the environment as a fad, and claimed that the moment enthusiasm of an activist era would quickly circulate elsewhere,” mentioned William D. Ruckelshaus, the EPA’s first administrator during the second Earth Day in 1971. “I imagine they have been incorrect.”

Earth Day went international in 1990

Thousands and thousands of individuals participated within the first Earth Day motion, which led to the passage of key environmental legal guidelines, together with the Nationwide Environmental Schooling Act, the Occupational Security and Well being Act, and the Clear Air Act within the U.S. later that 12 months.

“Earth Day 1970 achieved a uncommon political alignment, enlisting help from Republicans and Democrats, wealthy and poor, city dwellers and farmers, enterprise and labor leaders,” says the earthday.org history page. 

However its impression spans bigger than only one nation. The motion went international in 1990, after a gaggle of environmental leaders approached Hayes to arrange one other main marketing campaign for the planet, which mobilized 200 million individuals in 141 nations.

Within the new millennium, the motion switched its focus to marketing campaign towards international warming, and as just lately as 2020, over 1 billion individuals worldwide participated in Earth Day actions.

The Paris Settlement opened for signature on Earth Day

The Paris Agreement, essentially the most important worldwide local weather accord in historical past, was opened for signature on Earth Day in 2016. The treaty has greater than 190 signatories, all of whom agreed to cut back carbon emissions and perform different actions to cut back local weather change.

United Vehicle Staff union performed a task in making Earth Day doable

The previous head of the United Vehicle Staff (UAW) union was one of many greatest contributors to the unique Earth Day, donating $2,000 in 1970 (the equivalent of greater than $15,500 in the present day). 

“The UAW was by far the most important contributor to the primary Earth Day, and its help went past the merely monetary. It printed and mailed all our supplies at its expense — even these vital of pollution-belching vehicles,” Hayes told Grist in 2010. “Its organizers turned out employees in each metropolis the place it has a presence. And, after all, Walter then endorsed the Clear Air Act that the Large 4 have been doing their damnedest to kill or intestine.”

Organizers try to have the most important Earth Day cleanup occasion in historical past in 2024 

For this 12 months’s Earth Day celebration, earthday.org is working with Malaysian organizations to host the most important cleanup in Earth Day historical past. Penang Island, the nation’s primary island, has been impacted by plastic air pollution as a result of tourism. At the least 100,000 volunteers shall be cleansing up the seashores and forests within the nation, in response to organizers. They can even plant greater than 1 million timber. 

Tens of tens of millions of timber have been planted on Earth Day

Some 18 million acres of forest are misplaced yearly as a result of deforestation, per the United Nations’ Meals and Agriculture Group. To fight this, earthday.org based the Cover Venture in 2010 and says it has since planted tens of tens of millions of timber all over the world.