40 YEARS OF EARTH DAY
(HN, April 22, 2010) Earth Day turns 40 today. HUMNEWS spoke with Kathleen Rogers, President of the Earth Day Network about what it means to be an environmentalist.
FACTS ABOUT EARTH DAY:
- The first Earth Day was begun by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and took place in the United States on April 22, 1970 where approximately 20 million Americans took part.
- In 1990 Denis Hayes (the first Earth Day coordinator) took Earth Day gloabal where 141 countries took part in Earth Day activities.
- The Earth Day Network has a global advisory committee. Some of the members include: Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa Alaoui of Morocco: President, Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Antonio H. Benjamin: Justice, High Court of Brazil (STJ); Co-President of the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE) and Deputy-Chair of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law, Sir Richard Branson: British Entrepreneur; Founder and Chairman, Virgin Group, Phillipe Cousteau Jr.: Co-Founder, President and CEO, EarthEcho International; Ocean Environmentalist, Educator and Documentarian, Leonardo DiCaprio (Co-Chair): American Actor and Film Producer; Environmentalist; Founder, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation; Board of Trustees, National Resources Defense Council; Board Member, Global Green USA, Denis Hayes(Chair): President and CEO, Bullitt Foundation; Coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970, Sheri Liao: President, Global Village of Beijing, and Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
- This year 1.5 billion people are expected to take part in Earth Day activities in 190 countries from around the globe including: Andorra, Cameroon, Equitorial Guinea, Gabon, Iceland, Kiribati, Mexico, Qatar, Tajikistan, Vanuatu, and more. To see what Earth Day activities are happening in your part of the world click here - Earth Day 2010
- reporting by Cristina Khalaf, video by John Gardiner
source - earthday.org
Reader Comments