What's Earth Day?

My social media is full of Earth Day and Earth Month announcements and posts. While I know what it is, I didn’t really know where it comes from, so I did some research to learn more.

Since 1970, we annually celebrate Earth Day on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. Today, it's a global event organized by earthday.org, involving 1 billion people across more than 193 countries.

How Did it Start?

The movement started in the US and took its first steps in the late 60s. After witnessing the devastating oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin wanted to combine the energy of student anti-war protests with a growing public awareness of air and water pollution. Senator Nelson persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair.

On a side note: This shows that Republicans have not always opposed climate activism. Another example is the former Republican Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger; he worked to pass the Global Warming Solutions Act to cut emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, the Low Carbon Fuel Standard and the Million Solar Roofs Initiative.

Senator Nelson recruited a young activist, Denis Hayes, to coordinate the campus teach-ins and expand the concept. To ensure maximum participation from students, they chose April 22 as the day of action since it was after spring break and before mid-terms.

Hayes recognized the potential in this concept and organized a national team to promote teach-ins nationwide. They named it Earth Day, which attracted significant media attention. Hayes's intuition was correct—the inaugural Earth Day in 1970 inspired 20 million Americans, equating to 10% of the total U.S. population at the time, to assemble in streets, parks, and auditoriums, protesting the consequences of 150 years of industrial development that had resulted in significant human health issues.

The event took 20 years to achieve a global presence and significantly influence the international arena. By 1990, it attracted 200 million people across 141 countries, elevating environmental issues to a global forefront and greatly enhancing recycling efforts worldwide. This set the stage for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

On Earth Day 2016, a historical event took place: 175 nations signed the Paris Agreement, the most significant climate accord in the history of the climate and environmental movement.

Read the full history here!

Earth Day 2025

The theme for this year is "Our Power, Our Planet", urging everyone to come together to focus on renewable energy with the goal of tripling clean electricity by 2030. Remarkable advancements are being made in the renewable energy sector, even in countries such as the US, where it seems like we're only moving backwards at the moment:

• "In 2023, the U.S. produced more solar power than ever before with California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Nevada and Arizona leading the solar revolution. They are helping to produce the cheapest electricity in history." (source)

• "British Columbia, the Canadian province, where I live, generates nearly all (98%) of its electricity by harnessing the power of flowing water, a clean and renewable source. The rest comes from forest biomass, wind, natural gas, solar, and landfill gas." (source)

• "China is currently leading the world in both wind and solar, with twice as much capacity under construction as the rest of the world combined in 2024." (source)

• "Kenya is a leader in Africa, with geothermal power accounting for nearly half of its electricity generation." (source)

• "A third of all homes in Australia use solar power." (source)

Why the Focus on Renewable Energy?

Isn't it uplifting to focus on some positive news in the context of climate change? As you can imagine, there's still a lot of work to do. What I find particularly inspiring is this quote from earthday.org: "Renewable energy can spark a humanitarian revolution – for the first time in history, we have a pathway to providing virtually unlimited, low-cost energy to everyone."

What is renewable energy? This refers to energy that is created through natural sources that are replenished quicker than they are used. Sunlight and wind are two great examples—they are abundant and are continuously renewed. On the other hand, we have non-renewable resources, fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas. When they are burned to produce energy, they cause harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

The reason for focusing on renewable energies is that it has such a positive impact on so many different areas: Shifting away from traditional energy production can affect our health by reducing the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, thereby lowering healthcare expenses. It also decreases greenhouse gas emissions, minimizes water pollution, cuts energy costs, and generates new employment opportunities.

Earth Day All Year Around

Nowadays, Earthday.org is working all year round on different issues. On their website, you can find all the information about their work in different sectors. There are various tools and resources, and sometimes some hacks you can implement yourself. I picked one or two takeaways per section:

• End plastics: The focus is on plastic pollution.

  • This page has many interesting fact sheets on different aspects of plastic such as microplastics and single use plastics.

  • They also discuss the health implications of plastic and share research in two areas: Babies vs Plastics and Pets vs Plastics

• The Canopy Project: Tree planting around the world.

  • The Reforestation Map shows you were there are tree planting programs they support or partner with.

  • Gift idea: Plant a tree as a gift for someone

• Climate and Environmental Literacy

  • "The first Earth Day started an environmental revolution. Now, we are igniting an education revolution to save the planet."

  • There's a lot of material for teachers and educators on their website.

• Food and the Environment: Regenerative Agriculture

  • Take their quiz to learn more about regenerative agriculture. Let's see if you can compete with me. :)

• Fashion for the Earth:

  • This is probably not breaking news: Fashion is bad for our planet. If you want to know how bad, then check the list of facts they collected. It's horrible.

  • Here are two little hacks:

    • Choose brands that are manufactured in their own community and connected to the place, people behind them, local economy, and environment.

    • Learn how to repair your clothes yourself.

• Act on Climate Change:

  • This section includes different calls: Faith & the Environment, Artists for the Earth or Campaigns for Communities.

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I hope this post has been helpful and provided some clarity around Earth Day. I encourage you to check out the activities in your local communities. It doesn't necessarily have to be on Earth Day; there are events happening all the time. You might also be inspired by various calls to action to organize your own initiatives. Perhaps a beach cleanup, a clothing swap or a neighbourhood library? The possibilities are endless.