A Day for Earth

The New Indian Express , Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Correspondent :
Raising public awareness and supporting environmental protection and reform, every year April 22 is celebrated as Earth Day across the world in more than 190 countries.

The event, coordinated by the Earth Day Network (EDN) through its 22,000 partners across the globe, has campaigns ranging from climate change to drinking water problems to voter registration to saving Asiatic elephants.

An India specific permanent programme, launched in 2010, engages with EDN partners in India to build and enhance India’s civic mobilisation and leadership in the environmental movement. Environmental Education, Women and the Green Economy, Capacity Building and Training are a few of their India specific programmes.

Environmental campaigns, awareness walks, talks, workshops, documentary screenings, plays, musical evenings and a host of other events mark the day.

The history

The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970 by 20 million Americans and is considered as the birth of the modern environmental movement.

Back then, the movement was said to have channeled the energies of the anti-war protest movement. The Vietnam War was on and students across America were voicing opposition and holding protests.

Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, was inspired by the anti-war movement and realised that if similar efforts were put by the public about the air and water pollution, environmental protection would become a national political agenda.

Couple of landmark acts like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act etc followed the observance of Earth Day back then.

The focus

Although anything related to conserving the environment is supported by EDN or the partner network, they have charted out a few focus areas in which substantial amount of work is done.

Making schools greener by having eco-friendly facilities, improving school food, enhancing environmental education is one of their agendas. The canopy project is aimed at restoring green cover and protecting the natural lands by planting trees. The network plants trees which are useful to the local communities. The Green Cities campaign aims at reducing carbon emissions and building efficient cities.

 
SOURCE : http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/A-Day-for-Earth/2014/04/22/article2181591.ece1
 


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