Earth Day
Next: April 22, 2027
One planet. Look after it.
The story
Where it comes from
Earth Day began in the United States on 22 April 1970. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, shaken by a huge oil spill off Santa Barbara, California, in 1969, called for teach-ins on the environment at universities and recruited the young activist Denis Hayes to organise them. About 20 million Americans, a tenth of the population, took part. Earth Day went global in 1990, with 200 million people in 141 countries, and on 22 April 2009 the UN General Assembly named the date International Mother Earth Day.
How it's celebrated
People plant trees, clean up beaches, parks and rivers, join citizen-science counts and hold talks and teach-ins in schools and universities. EARTHDAY.ORG, the organisation that grew out of the first Earth Day, coordinates events around the world, and the UN marks the day with a dialogue on living in harmony with nature. A simple way to take part is to pick up litter on a walk you already take.
Did you know
- The organisers chose 22 April because it was a weekday between American students' spring break and their final exams.
- On Earth Day 2016, leaders from 175 countries signed the Paris Agreement on climate change, a record for a single day.
- The UN resolution was led by Bolivia, and China, Japan, the Philippines, Mongolia, Nepal and Bhutan were among its co-sponsors.
Coming up next
- World Book Day · April 23, 2027
- International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace · April 24, 2027
- World Malaria Day · April 25, 2027
- World Intellectual Property Day · April 26, 2027
- International Design Day · April 27, 2027
- World Day for Safety and Health at Work · April 28, 2027