“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed” — Mahatma Gandhi

Earth is the only planet among all the planets in the solar system that supports life. Hence it becomes the responsibility of every human being to take care of their environment, natural resources, the nature and all the inhabitants of this planet. Every year, April 22 is celebrated as the World Earth Day to raise awareness about the importance of the planet. On this occasion, we bring to you a few facts about World Earth Day.

• World Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970.
• World Earth Day is marked with various events across the globe to demonstrate support for environment protection. This year’s theme is “Protect our species”.
• Earth Day Network which is the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement, works with more than 75,000 partners in around 192 countries to build environmental democracy and lead the celebrations on Earth Day.
• One of the goals of the Earth Day Network is to educate and raise awareness about accelerating the rate of extinction of millions of species and the causes and consequences of this phenomenon.
• The actual initiative to celebrate Earth Day was taken by Gaylord Nelson –  senator of California in 1969. The oil spill on the coast of California on January 28, 1969 that killed thousands of marine animals had led to the senator taking upon this initiative.
• On this day, people across the globe engage in tree planting drives, hold civic initiatives such as cleaning their towns and roads and generate awareness about this day.
• This day witnesses participation from more than 193 countries that coordinate globally through the Earth Day Network.
• Earth Day has achieved the status of being the largest secular observance in the world which is celebrated by more than a billion people.
• On the occasion of World Earth Day 2019, the Google search engine page features an Earth Day 2019 doodle with a series of animations on unique avian and plant species.

Also read: Conserving Mother Earth