Every day should be Earth Day. But having a holiday to serve as an important reminder and a rallying point for all makes celebrating that much sweeter...and significant. We asked you about your #EarthDay plans on Twitter: Read on for some of our favorite tweets and submissions.
Happy Earth Day! I'm celebrating by reducing my carbon footprint & telecommuting to work each day instead of driving 50+ miles. - @SpaceSays, Andrea Henderson, LEED AP ID+C Walk in the woods and planting seedlings with the kids. :) - Elizabeth Thompson, LEED specialist at USGBC With 37 LEED certified projects, and 50 registered with @USGBC, we're helping communities celebrate #EarthDay every day. - @MoseleyArch, USGBC member company I am planning to plant some houseplants to absorb the VOCs from my parents' new kitchen cabinets. I'm also going to buy Joanna Macy's new book, Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We're in without Going Crazy. - @AmyMKing from the USGBC team North Shore CDC is hosting the Energize the Earth 5/10k run & festival in Beverly, MA to celebrate Earth Day! - @NorthShoreCDC, community development We're planting some bulbs & sunflowers and going for a bike ride:) And tune up our bikes! Happy #EarthDay to you! - @PlanetFassa, family blog
It's not too late to tell us what you did to recognize Earth Day. Tweet #EarthDay at @USGBC and we'll share your message.
https://www.usgbc.org/articles/earthday-what-you-did
THE FIRST EARTH DAY
Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
As we prepare to mark 50 years of Earth Day in 2020, let’s take a look at the last half-century of mobilization for action:
ORIGINS OF EARTH DAY
Earth Day 1970 gave a voice to an emerging public consciousness about the state of our planet —
In the decades leading up to the first Earth Day, Americans were consuming vast amounts of leaded gas through massive and inefficient automobiles. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of the consequences from either the law or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Until this point, mainstream America remained largely oblivious to environmental concerns and how a polluted environment threatens human health.