10 Earth Day Facts

800Px Ecologytheta.svg - All Green Electronics Recycling
Credit: Ron Cobb

All Green Electronics Recycling is looking forward to our Earth Day celebrations this weekend! We’ll be busy collecting e-waste all over California.

In honor of the day, here are ten facts that you may or may not know:

  1. Earth Day is a relatively new holiday and was first celebrated on April 22 in 1970.
  2. Earth Day was founded by Senator Nelson of Wisconsin, and is credited for creating the environmentalism movement.
  3. The Earth Day Ecology flag (pictured at the top of this post) was created by cartoonist Ron Cobb on November 7, 1969. The symbol is made up of the letters “E” and “O,” which were taken from “Environment” and “Organism” respectively.
  4. More than 20 million Americans participated in this first Earth Day celebration.
  5. In 1990, Earth Day went global, with 200 million people in over 140 nations participating, according to the Earth Day Network (EDN
  6. In 2000, Earth Day focused on clean energy and involved hundreds of millions of people in 184 countries, as well as 5,000 environmental groups.
  7. According to the Earth Day Network, it is the “largest secular civic event in the world.”
  8. The original Earth Day was celebrated on April 22 because it didn’t conflict with Easter or Passover, it didn’t fall during spring break or finals, and it was on a Wednesday, so it didn’t interfere with weekend activities.
  9. The United Nations celebrates Earth Day on the spring equinox, which is around March 20th. Each year.
  10. The first Canadian Earth Day was celebrated on September 11, 1980.

 

What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day this year? Let us know in the comments below!

You can read more Earth Day facts on the History Channel website, the National Geographic website and Treehugger.

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