About Earth Day

Earth Day is celebrated in 190 countries by one billion people.
Earth Day Canada is also celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and more than six million Canadians are expected to participate.

Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson and Harvard University grad Denis Hayes spearheaded Earth Day on April 22, 1970, uniting 20 million Americans. It was the largest, organized civic demonstration U.S. history.

Earth Day was planned over seven months, on a budget of $124,000. Nelson insisted the day be based on grassroots movements across the country and rejected a top-down, national approach

The first Earth Day led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species act in the U.S.

In 1990, on the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, founder Gaylord Nelson had this to say: “I don’t want to have to come limping back here twenty years from now on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day ..... and have the embarrassing responsibility of telling your sons and daughters that you didn’t do your duty — that you didn’t become the conservation generation that we hoped for.”

source:www.nelsonearthday.net
photo : www.dohosurf.org/