18 Apr What’s the Date of Earth Day?

The official date of Earth Day is April 22 of each year. However, it is important that we all work to improve the environment every day in order to protect our planet.

The Earth Day movement was begun in 1962 with the publication of a book, “Silent Spring”, when author Rachel Carson raised the public’s awareness of environmental and public health concerns in 24 countries by the sale of over 500,000 copies.

Earth Day 1970 was the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson who, with a staff of 85, promoted a national environment teach-in, which resulted in 20 million Americans demonstrating in coast-to-coast rallies. That first Earth Day helped to soon create the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts.

Earth Day 1990 saw the gathering of 200 million people in over 140 countries and led to worldwide recycling efforts. In 1992 the United Nations Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro saw the largest number of national leaders meeting in one place. Also in the 1990s, CARE, an international relief agency set of goal of planting 500,000,000 trees throughout the world.

Earth Day 2000 found a crowd of hundreds of thousands gathering on the National Mall in Washington, DC; and on Earth Day 2010, through the Earth Day Network, 225,000 people were at the National Mall and more than 900,000 community members amassed online.

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is the federal law that oversees American drinking water quality and its safety from every public water system in the United States. Originally passed in 1974, it protects the drinking water sources of lakes, rivers, springs, reservoirs and ground water wells except for private wells.

What can we do to help?

• Try to repurpose items rather than buying new ones.
• Use cartons and other packaging as art projects or as containers for many household purposes rather than sending them to the landfill.
•  Read books to your children that have an eco-friendly theme.
• Sew a worn pillowcase into a tote bag and use when shopping instead of using plastic bags.

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