51 years ago, several thousand citizens of the United States of America (USA) answered the call of US Senator Gaylord Nelson and climate activist Denis Hayes to unite. They came out in droves to protest the poisoning of their air and water due to unchecked industrial pollution, oil spills, etc. What started as a grassroots movement in USA has now become a global movement celebrated yearly on 22nd April as Earth Day.
Environmental pollution and climate change affects every citizen in this planet. In the past decade, the world has experienced catastrophic natural disasters at increasing frequencies. There have been myriad oil spills in different water bodies, a drastic loss of forest covers due to rampant deforestation and forest fires, and the extinction of numerous flora and fauna. It is abundantly clear that human driven activities affect the health of the planet. In the past 50 years, people around the world have become more conscious of the factors that detrimentally affect Earth. Every Earth Day, cleaning and seed plantation drives, seminars, rallies, and more are organised at a grand scale to bring about societal awareness.
The 1970’s Earth Day grassroots movement has now transformed into a massive international organisation called EARTHDAY.org. Each year they strive to make positive changes at global and individual level by holding nations and corporations accountable, facilitating innovative solutions to the current climate and environmental problems, etc. With the war cry of “Restore our Earth”, the organisation kicked off an online Earth Day celebration (20th April-22nd April, 2021) that hosted noted climate activists, world leaders, musicians, artists, industry leaders, and more. The events were poignant, educative and filled with hope for a better tomorrow.
American novelist and environmental activist, Wendel Berry rightly said, “The earth is what we all have in common.” The world as a whole needs to work together to restore the planet. It won’t matter if we break new grounds in the fields of science, art, film, business, and more, if we don’t have a planet to celebrate on.