OM SAIRAM: Earth Day 2012

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Earth Day 2012

What is Earth Day?

Founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day is aday intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for our natural environment. The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, was a US centric event but today Earth Day is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year.

The mission is to broaden and diversify the environmental movement worldwide, and to mobilize it as the most effective vehicle for promoting a healthy, sustainable environment.

On Earth Day’s 40th anniversary in 2010, over a billion people participated in environmental activities and events in 190 countries.

Earth Day is a celebration of our environment and a day to reflect on our individual impact on the world around us. We all hear the messages: Replacing old light bulbs to CFL’s or LED bulbs can save huge amounts of energy let alone money and so on and so on. But how many of us are really taking action?

Many folks think that in order to make a difference it will cost them a ton of money or they will have to settle for a lesser quality product or the effort they put in won’t make much of a difference. That’s simply not true anymore.

What is true is that there are so many simple actions and options that we can each take action on today to help us conserve an incredible amount of energy use (and save us all money), lessen our carbon footprint and protect the world that we have inherited for our children and our grandchildren.

Simple and affordable projects like changing out those old light bulbs for the newer, more efficient LED bulbs or composting in your garden or conserving water by making your toilet a dual-flush toilet are all projects that make an instant impact on our world.

This year, Earth Day turns 41 years old. It all started back in 1970 with a call from United States Senator Gaylord Nelson to the nation to come together to protect our world and environment. Since that first Earth Day back on April 22, 1970, many things have changed for our environment for better and worse.

Earth Day 2012? What projects will you take on to improve our world? To help you get started, here are some great articles, guides, projects and videos to help you learn decide how you can make Earth Day 2012 a great day for future generations: