The History of Earth Day

The History -
The idea for a day to increase awareness about the Earth first came from peace activist John McConnell , at the 1969 UNESCO conference in San Francisco . A proclamation sanctifying this day to pay obsceiance  to  nature (scheduled on March 21st, the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere) was written by McConnell  and was signed by the then U.N Secretary General, UThant.
Almost simultaneously, U.S Senator Gaylord Nelson also decide to have a day to honor the Earth, and celebrated his Earth Day just a Month later , treating it as a  forum to increase Americans' awareness about  the environment. Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his efforts.
In 1990,Earth Day went worldwide, and was celebrated in over 140 countries (141 ,to be exact)


 thanks to the work of Denis Hayes and  his organization (Hayes was also the national coordinator of Earth Day back in 1970).That  Earth Day was a huge success, and  gave an  impetus for Recycling plans of other countries all over the world. It also  gave  the United Nations the incentive to host a U.N  Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Denis Hayes's work really helped in spreading the word on Earth Day, and  its importance.

Vehicles are responsible for over a quarter of total greenhouse gas emissions
in U.S.Reference:https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/sources.html

Earth Day 2016 -


This Earth Day,177 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) members signed the Paris Agreement, which deals with matters such as reducing the global average temperature, mainly by reducing greenhouse gas emissions . An agreement on the  language of the document was negotiated by delegates of 195 nations at the 21st Conference of the parties of the UNFCCC in Paris ,and was adopted on the 12th of December 2015,although the agreement has not come into  force yet.
Reference:www.earthday.org/about/the-history-of-earth day , Wikipedia
Earth Day isn't just a day where everyone smiles and plants a tree  and then ,the  next day,everything's the same again .It's a day when we realize how much we owe the Earth,for its air,water,fruit,all the creatures-essential for our survival .Earth Day the day we pay some of thet debt back. That's why we all should celebrate Earth Day,and that's why it all began.