Earth Day 2024: What is Earth Day? All about the theme, date, history and significance

Earth Day, an annual observance to highlight the importance of environmental protection, is marked globally on April 22. The various activities around the day are planned and coordinated by EARTHDAY.ORG, earlier known as the Earth Day Network.

For Earth Day 2024, the theme of ‘Planet vs Plastics’ has been selected. The choice of the theme is aimed at promoting EARTHDAY.ORG’s demand for a 60% reduction in the use of all kinds of plastics by the year 2040.

“Our theme, Planet vs. Plastics, calls to advocate for widespread awareness on the health risk of plastics, rapidly phase out all single use plastics, urgently push for a strong UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution, and demand an end to fast fashion,” EARTHDAY.ORG said on its website.

Earth Day: History and significance

The observance of Earth Day is considered to be significant as it marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. The idea to observe the day was first envisaged by US Senator Gaylord Nelson, following a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California.

Nelson recruited Denis Hayes, a young activist, to organize the campus teach-ins and to scale the idea to a broader public, and they choose April 22, a weekday falling between Spring Break and Final Exams, to maximize the greatest student participation, as per the details shared by EARTHDAY.ORG.

Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land and the effort soon broadened to include a wide range of organizations, faith groups, and others.

The first Earth Day “inspired 20 million Americans — at the time, 10% of the total population of the United States — to take to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate against the impacts of 150 years of industrial development which had left a growing legacy of serious human health impacts”, according to EARTHDAY.ORG.

By the end of 1970, the first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, it pointed out.