Earth Day is celebrated annually on April 22, which this year falls on a Tuesday. Though Earth Day has its origins in the United States, it is a worldwide holiday that represents the efforts of everyone on the planet to conserve natural resources and fight pollution, pursue renewable energy sources, and ensure a clean and healthy environment for all. This year, the official theme of Earth Day is “Our Power, Our Planet,” encouraging us all to make the switch to renewable energy.
The inspiration for Earth Day was the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, in which 3 million gallons of oil from an offshore rig were accidentally leaked into the Santa Barbara Channel, nearly reaching California. Shocked by witnessing the environmental disaster, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson was motivated to organize a large movement to protect not only the world’s clean water, but every facet of the environment from damage and destruction.
With the country already beginning to be conscious of the impact humans can have on the environment, and with the 1960s already being a major decade for advocating for change and protesting injustice from the Civil Rights Movement to activism against the Vietnam War, it was the perfect time to give such a movement powerful legs.
The first Earth Day was observed by millions just the next year, on April 22, 1970. The activism that surrounds it led to the passage of several major environmental protection laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, whose responsibility it is to ensure a clean and safe environment, mitigate threats such as pollution and climate change-related damage, and eliminate environmental hazards to public health.
Earth Day is not a federal holiday, so expect government buildings, businesses, and banks to be operating on normal hours. There will likely be environmentally friendly community events or volunteer efforts taking place for the occasion, so check around your neighborhood. With spring coming, neighborhood cleanup events are especially popular.
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