Earth Day is the day we celebrate our beautiful planet and pledge to protect it. This day is a clarion call for all of us to make meaningful commitments towards change and protect Mother Earth. It aims to raise awareness that we have a collective responsibility to promote harmony with nature and to balance the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations.
 It is celebrated every year as an annual event by the people all across the world on April 22 in order to increase the awareness among people about the environment safety as well as to demonstrate the environmental protection measures. First celebrated in 1970, Earth Day is observed in more than 192 countries with festivals, rallies and environmental activities.
More than one billion people participate in Earth Day campaigns every year and it is the largest civic event in the world, celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all nationalities, faiths and backgrounds.
Earth Day was established to raise the public awareness for self-consciousness, other living organisms, controlling the anti-war protest movement as well as keeping the environmental issues in front of the people. A big tragedy was behind establishing the event of earth day celebration: the tragedy of the massive oil spill in the Santa Barbara, California in 1969. This tragedy led the Gaylord Nelson towards enhancing the public consciousness for the air, water and soil pollution as well as implementing the environmental protection measures.
For founding the earth day celebration date on 22nd of April, Nelson was honoured later with the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award.
Most of the earth day communities celebrate it for the whole week with the name Earth Week to focus on many environmental issues. In this way, 22nd of April 1970 has been marked as the anniversary of the modern environmental movement.
Why do we need to celebrate Earth Day?
Our Earth is the only planet in the Universe where life is possible till date. It is very necessary to maintain the natural assets of the earth in order to continue the life on the earth. In the rush of the crowd, the most intelligent creature of the God called human is slowly losing its humanity and forgot to take care of the planet that gave it life and started using its resources very ruthlessly. April 22 has been marked as an Earth Day to make the human race get aware about the importance of their planet.
It is very necessary to take care of the environmental issues to stay healthy and alive as cruel people have mercilessly utilized its resources and depleted its life supporting resources over the centuries.
One of the big examples of it is the depletion of the Ozone layer which prevents us from the ultra violet rays of the sun. Another big problem of the environment is death of rivers by getting mixed with the industrial toxic materials which leads to the global warming. Increasing industrialization on daily basis leads to deforestation which ultimately leads to the rise in Earth temperature. These are the life ending dangers on the earth forever which can be lessens through the small steps such as new trees plantation, inhibiting the deforestation, limiting the vehicles use to reduce air pollution, enhancing the energy conservation through reducing the unnecessary use of electricity. Such small steps become a big step if it is being taken care of by the people worldwide together.
Now-a- days, everything is being packed in the plastic bags or given in it by the shopkeepers. Plastic bags productions are increasing day by day which is very shameful condition for us as these materials are non-degradable.
How World Earth Day is celebrated?
People from all over the world celebrate earth day with great enthusiasm and interest. More than 20 million Americans took part in the event celebration and make the streets, parks and auditoriums busy in order to display their themes role based on the public health, environmental issues, industrialization, deforestation and so many.
Students from thousands of colleges, universities and other educational institutions actively take part in the protest against increasing earth issues such as the day to day environment deterioration, air and water pollution, ozone layer deterioration, industrialization, deforestation etc. to prevent the oil spills, set up of polluting factories, power plants, use and production of pesticides and etc.
Various steps have been taken by the governments of many countries towards the safety of earth by implementing the variety of legal rules.
A group of environmental leaders organize various events and campaigns to celebrate the Earth Day. A big crowd of the people gets together from 141 countries to solve the environmental issues by implementing variety of useful measures.
People take part in demonstrating the theme of clean environment in order to build a clean and healthy world to welcome new generations. The aim of celebrating the world earth day is to inspire the public for making better earth environment.
At this day people perform outdoor activities related to the earth safety like new trees plantation planting trees, picking up roadside waste materials, recycling of wastes, energy conservation and so many. Some people request governments to take immediate action to prevent the day by day increasing global warming and other environmental destructions. At this day all the TV channels too, show programs on how to deal with the real environmental issues and spread awareness.
At some places in the US, people celebrate earth day by taking part in a parade getting dressed up in flowers, plants or bugs clothes to make aware that whole environment is our real home.
It’s a day to realise what a gift planet Earth is. So take the lead and return the favour to Mother Earth. Leave a viable planet for the generations to come. Remember that every effort and every action counts!Â