Share and Voice: What is Earth Day?

I was looking through my planner the other day and it listed April 22nd as "Earth Day" and I had no idea what this holiday was all about.  I decided to search the web and figure out what is Earth Day and how it evolved.

*Earth Day was created to inspire awareness and appreciation for our planet.  It was actually founded by a U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin.  After the holiday was set in stone, a symbol was created November 7, 1969 to represent Earth Day which looked like this....

*The symbol is a combination of the letters "E" and "O", standing for Environment and Organism

*Earth Day mainly came about because of the increasing worriness about environmental crisises, so a national day was put in affect to talk about environmental problems.

*In 1999, as the millennium was nearing, a campaign was put into effect on Earth Day that focused on global warming and a push for clean energy.

*On the first Earth Day in 1970 a Earth Day Network was put into action where activists can connect change in local, national, and global policies.  This network reaches over 17,000 organizations in 174 countries.

*Why April 22nd? This date was chosen because people thought that it wasn't a busy time in the year for students (final exams weren't nearing) and wanted to teach these students about cirtical factors dealing with the environment.  There was also no spring breaks that needed to be worried about, and it was late enough in the spring months that there would be pretty good weather.  It was also decided that Wednesday would be a best day because it was mid-week, and most students would most likely be attendants in their classes.

*The main point of this holiday is to foster appreciation of the Earth's environment and become aware of the issues that threaten it.

*If one would like to become involved in Earth Day, your school would be a good place to contact, since they usually have some kind of environmental meeting or volunteering program on the holiday.