International Earth Day 2021 – Every year on 22 April Earth day is celebrated to spread awareness for environmental protection and climate literacy. This global celebration is adjoined with a theme to spread the common idea of the objective of the event. The theme for International Earth Day 2021 is “Restore Our Earth”. EARTHDAY.ORG (formerly known as Earth Day Network) coordinates all the activities globally with the help of more than 193 participating countries. This year’s Earth day carries a political significance also as US president Joe Biden will hold a global climate summit to build US credibility in the climate change issue.
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History of Earth Day
Rachel Carson, an American marine biologist, published the non-fiction book Silent Spring in 1962 that ignited the Environmental Movement in public. The emerging environmental consciousness was fueled by the Santa Barbara Oil Spill of 1969 in which more than 10,000 dolphins, seabirds, seals, and sea lions were killed.
On the first anniversary of the oil spill disaster in 1970, Environmental Rights Day was launched. The front-line warriors of the oil disaster namely, Selma Rubin, Marc McGinnes, and Bud Bottoms are recognized as the proponents of Earth Day. Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin is considered the founder of the Earth day movement. Congressman Pete McCloskey co-chair the first Earth day with Nelson. It was Senator Nelson who ideated environmental teach-ins on college campuses and for this task, Denis Hayes was recruited who at that time was a young activist & coordinator of the first Earth Day.
Seeing the success of the movement and the large participation rate of the Americans this movement was later named Earth Day. People from all walks of life supported this 1970’s movement. The influence of this movement was so strong that it led to the formation of first of its kind many environmental laws and the establishment of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
As 1990 approached the Earth day movement became global with around 141 countries participating in raising environmental concerns. This huge public demand paved the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
After 30 years of Earth day, utilizing the power of the internet the network of Earth day became broader involving around 184 countries.
As 2010 approached the Earth Day Network transformed into EARTHDAY.ORG and since then it is recognized as the largest secular day of protest in the world with the involvement of more than a billion people from 193 countries.
Last year’s 50th anniversary of Earth Day was celebrated with the theme of climate action.
International Earth Day 2021 theme
Earth Day 2021 theme is Restore Our Earth. On the 51st anniversary, EARTHDAY.ORG has shared 51 ways to restore our Earth. Some of the Earth Day activities that you can incorporate into your lifestyle are mentioned below.
- Start plogging (Picking up litter while jogging)
- Ditch print catalogs and support reforestation by donating to The Canopy Project ($1=1 tree)
- Add climate to the students’ curriculum
- Protect pollinators
- Stand up for our world (see all the other actions you can take to make a better world for everyone)
- Implement regenerative agriculture
Suggested Reading List–
- Blue Flag Certification – an environmental award
- Environmental DNA (eDNA) – an effective biodiversity monitoring tool
Paris Climate Agreement
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris rendered a draft on the climate protection treaty on the consensus of the 195 nations. This treaty came into force on Earth Day 2016 when more than 120 countries including the US and China signed Paris Agreement.
Earth Day poems
Earth Day is also called International Mother Earth Day as announced by United Nations in 2009. To inculcate the sense of environmental significance in the young generation, literature can be a great tool. Here are some famous poems that can be recited on this Earth Day.
The thirsty earth soaks up the rain,
And drinks, and gapes for drink again.
The plants suck in the earth and are
With constant drinking fresh and fair.
–Abraham Cowley (1618–67)
Summer, fall, winter, spring,
The seasons rotate as each brings
Its special beauty to this Earth of ours.
Winter’s snow and summer’s flowers;
Frozen rivers will flow come spring,
There is a renewal of everything.
–Edna Frohock (1906–97)
While the bright radiant sun in centre glows,
The earth in annual motion round it goes;
At the same time on its own axis reels,
And gives us change of seasons as it wheels.
–The 1793 Old Farmer’s Almanac
The season comes when, from her three-month trance,
The Earth awakens: already her deep heart
Begins to stir, and send its life abroad.
–Thomas Buchanan Read (1822–72)
It’s an earth song,—
And I’ve been waiting long for an earth song.
It’s a spring song,—
And I’ve been waiting long for a spring song.
Strong as the shoots of a new plant
Strong as the bursting of new buds
Strong as the coming of the first child from its mother’s womb.
It’s an earth song,
A body song,
A spring song,
I have been waiting long for this spring song.
–Langston Hughes (1902–67)
Current Events From Science And Technology–
- 12 Rare Quadruple Quasars Discovered
- Muon g-2 Experiment At Fermilab
- Nora Al Matrooshi – First Arab Woman Astronaut
- NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory detected X-rays from Uranus
- Carnivac-Cov: First COVID-19 Vaccine For Animals
Final points on International Earth Day 2021
This year the annual event of Earth Day will be celebrated virtually due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Every year the global climate crisis is deteriorating. To mitigate this situation all of us need to work on global warming, environmental pollution, and vanishing forest cover etc. For a sustainable future, we need to plant more trees, conserve more water and execute reduce, reuse, and recycle philosophy. We must remember it is the Earth that we all have in common!
Wishing You A Happy Earth Day 🙂
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