Significance Of The Earth Day And Environment Protection

Earth day is celebrated worldwide to demonstrate concerns about the depleting condition of the mother earth and spread awareness as to why be it important to ensure responsible behavior from global citizens, which would result in environment friendly activities. The planet earth has faced unimaginable damages ever since the advent of industrialization the levels of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere have been the highest in the past 650,000 years.

The first ever demonstration was held in 1970 when 20 million Americans gathered on streets to convey the message of environment friendliness, 22nd April 1970 became the first ever Earth Day and is celebrated on the same date since then.

The campaign was initiated by Senator Gaylord Nelson (late), this bought together the two political parties in America, and is still remembered as the remarkable start of the worldwide environment movement. The movement has gained much momentum since its inception as soon after an Environment Protection Agency was formed which has been working on water, air, land and animal related issues. Similar government based organizations and NGO’s have also been established which actively propagate social causes and environmental wellbeing as the only solution to a sustainable future of human race.

To make sure the importance of the event does not fade away in minds of the masses, the event is every now and then celebrated at either large or small scale. In 1990, a twenty year celebration of the cause was organized. The celebrations were joined by 200 million people worldwide who saw Senator Nelson being awarded by the highest honor for a civilian in the US, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Each Earth Day has a different agenda; this year’s agenda is to protect 25,000 acres of rainforest in Indonesia, cleanup of Great Wall of China and beach cleaning activities in Lebanon.

WWF is one of the most prominent organizations which works at grass root level for causes pertaining to environment, one of the most commendable things it does is that it takes children on board and trains them be a productive member of the society. Young children are taught things like gardening, recycling and energy conservation.

Earth Day comes like a festival for the little ones, as they are involved in extracurricular activities, and as a responsibility for the adults. It important for the adults to inculcate these values in the younger generation so that the tradition lives or else the mother earth would be left helpless and would not be able to provide us for our nourishment and survival.