Earth Day is an annual celebration that marks the start of the environmental movement. It aims at tackling issues affecting the world, such as climate change and pollution.
Now in its 51st year, the event is celebrated annually on 22 April. It first took place in 1970 in the form of a mass protest.
The concept was first proposed at a Unesco conference in San Francisco in 1969, by peace activist John McConnell. Although it was originally planned to be on 21 March, which is the first day of spring.
A month later United States Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed a nationwide environmental teach-in on 22 April. His idea took over McConnell’s plan.
The event was given the name Earth Day. As its purpose grew, it led to becoming the largest single day protest in history.
On this day in 2016, over 120 countries signed the Paris Agreement, which focuses on climate change. Countries included the UK, United States and China.
What is happening this year?
The theme of this year’s Earth Day is “Restore Our Earth”. It will cover natural processes, green technologies, and ways to restore the world’s ecosystems. Other topics include climate restoration, reforestation, regenerative agriculture and cleanups.
The occasion will be marked over three days of climate action, starting on Tuesday 20 April. It will start with a global youth climate summit with environmental organisations and hundreds of youth climate activists.
Later in the evening there will be a virtual summit examining climate and environmental justice, in connection to issues of pollution, poverty, police brutality, race and the pandemic.
The next day there will be a “Teach for the Planet: Global Education Summit”. This will be a multilingual virtual summit spanning several time zones, and feature prominent activists from each continent.
Following this, on Thursday, Earth Day itself, the organisation will hold a live digital event on their website. They hope world climate leaders, activists, nonprofit innovators, industry leaders, artists, influencers and the leaders of tomorrow will all come together to push towards a better world.
Elsewhere around the world, global leaders will join to discuss climate change at a virtual summit hosted by US President Joe Biden.
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