Earth Day is the largest environmental event in the world, and is celebrated each year on April 22nd. More than 6 million Canadians—including school-aged children —participate in an Earth Day activity in their communities.
The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970, and is considered the birth of the modern environmental movement. After the 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, Calif., Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. senator for Wisconsin, organized a nationwide demonstration against the pollution of and the deterioration of the environment. The protest was held on April 22, 1970. Approximately 20 million Americans joined the demonstration in support of a healthier and more sustainable treatment of the environment.
Today more than 500 million people in more than 160 countries participate in the Earth Day festivities!
On Earth Day 2016, political leaders from around the world will gather in New York to sign the Paris Climate Agreement. At the same time, the global network of Earth Day organizations are kicking off an ambitious campaign to plant 7.8 billion trees, one for every person on the planet, by 2020. Canada’s contribution to this worldwide goal is 35 million trees — one per person in Canada. The campaign kicked off in April with the organization’s first-ever ―crowd-planting campaign, #Rooting4Trees, found online at EarthDay.ca