Every year on April 22, schools, colleges and environmental groups across more than 192 countries celebrate Earth Day. First celebrated in 1970, Earth Day was a result of the movement in developing nations that tried to raise awareness about the environmental impact of the rapid, uncontrolled industrialization of the world.
Origins in peaceful demonstrations
The 1970s were wrought with peaceful demonstrations and populations of the western world coming out on the streets to make their concerns about various socio-political causes be heard. The need for an Earth Day came into being as a way to bring the attention of various national and world agencies and governments towards the harm that was being inflicted on the earth’s environment as a result of industrial development.
It raises awareness about environmental issues
The lure of living in a society where one gets every comfort at the touch of a button is rather strong. Even the staunchest advocate of preserving nature cannot avoid travelling in petroleum-fueled cars/trains/airplanes/buses and living in a house that affects the ecology around it. However, through Earth Day celebrations, environmental groups seek to raise awareness amongst members of the general public about they can reduce their own carbon footprint. By telling masses the environmental impact of their lifestyle preferences, these agencies seek the change human behaviors that are harmful for the planet.
It seeks to provoke change in policies
Some of the most ecologically disastrous activities the planet is plagued with today could easily have been prevented if there were laws against them. for example, if there were laws around the world strictly prohibiting the release and dumping of industrial into landfills, the problem of groundwater contamination wouldn’t even be born; if there were laws against the production and use of non-biodegradable, single use products, the world wouldn’t have places like the trash island floating in the middle of the Pacific ocean. Earth Day celebrations seek to bring the governments; attention to such loopholes in policies and laws.
