Earth Day: the environmental event promoting the preservation of the Earth

World Earth Day is an international day to remember and manifest environmental sustainability and the protection of our planet.

The purpose of this green event is to involve the largest number of people around the planet in the awareness of the urgency of remedying a seriously compromised climatic and environmental situation.

What are its origins?

On January 29, 1969, seabed drilling in the Santa Barbara Canal in California caused an oil rig to explode, spilling 100,000 oil barrels on the county’s shores. The impact on the marine habitat was devastating, resulting in the death of thousands of fish and birds. In 1969 at a UNESCO conference in San Francisco, peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to be celebrated for the first time on March 21, 1970, that is to say, the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. This day was later enshrined in a proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary-General U Thant to the United Nations. A month later, United States Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed the idea of holding a seminar on the environment nationwide on April 22, 1970. On that occasion, a young activist, Denis Hayes, who served as national coordinator, together with Nelson renamed the event “Earth Day“. Denis and his staff raised the event beyond the original idea of a course that would include all of the United States. More than 20 million people took to the streets and the first Earth Day remains the largest protest in human history. Since then, it has involved up to one billion people every year in 193 countries around the world. Earth Day now includes a wide range of globally coordinated events.

What does this day mean?

An important role is played by the protection of the marine environment and greenery and for this reason, each individual is called upon to show greater sensitivity towards the issue of protecting the planet and to adopt a more responsible lifestyle. Everyone can find daily new ideas to live responsibly and sustainably and can also engage in information actions, scientific dissemination, and environmental awareness. This day is an educational and informative event, an opportunity to evaluate the problems of the planet: pollution, the destruction of ecosystems, and the exhaustion of non-renewable resources. To save the planet, it is necessary to find and apply solutions that allow the negative effects of human activities to be eliminated. But it is a priority to hurry, to avoid a doomsday scenario. To protect our planet we need new energies and new solutions, our survival as a human species depends on the Earth, just think that 1/4 of all medicines originated in the rainforests and therefore it is essential to protect them and guarantee biodiversity.

What can be done for the planet?

There are many solutions that can be put in place to fight climate change, to improve the situation both globally and locally. You can act in many areas from the recycling of materials to the conservation of natural resources, from the use of natural or renewable products instead of chemicals that are harmful to the habitat. Through the reduction of consumption, recycling, reuse, energy, and sustainable nutrition, a difference can be made in preserving the health of the planet by ensuring the balance of biodiversity.

The organization chooses a theme for each edition and the slogan for 2022 is “Investing in our Planet” five main programs were also presented: The Great Global Cleanup, Sustainable Fashion, Climate, and Environmental Literacy, Canopy Project, Food and Environment, and Global Earth Challenge. Today 22 April 2022 on the occasion of Earth Day we want to share with readers some interviews made in recent years with artists, architects, designers, journalists, writers, entrepreneurs, who have told us about their commitment and professional involvement on issues relating to the environment, pollution and the search for sustainability.

Interview with Sissi Chao. Founder of REmakeHub a social enterprise that provides a circular solution for waste pollution in the fashion and design industry.

Interview with Michael Standaert. Michael primarily covers environmental and climate change policy, and infrastructure developments for Bloomberg BNA, MIT Technology Review, and South China Morning Post.

Interview with Wu Judy Chin-tai. Judy is a Taiwanese record producer whose work primarily focuses on natural sounds, instrumental music, and ethnic music.

Wu Judy Chin-tai record producer sounds of nature, ethnic music

Interview with Fashion Designer Toby Crispy. Toby demonstrated the various possibilities of upcycling fashion through redesign service and collaboration with NGOs, art groups, brands & corporate for exhibitions, workshops, events with various fashion brands, and green groups.

Interview with Stefano Boeri. His project of metropolitan reforestation aims to regenerate the environment and urban biodiversity. Protecting and increasing permeable and green surfaces is the solution for cities that are responsible for climate change problems.

Nanjing-Vertical-Forest-China — Along the facades of Nanjing Vertical Forest are growing 600 tall trees, 500 medium-sized trees (for a total amount of 1,100 trees from 23 local species) and 2,500 cascading plants and shrubs will cover a 6,000 sqm area.

Interview with Michelle Hong. Cofounder of sustainable urban farming organization Rooftop Republic in Hong Kong.

Rooftop-Farm-at-JLL-managed-building-in-Central_Photo-Credit-Rooftop-Republic_Xaume-Olleros

Interview with Fengru Lin. Co-Founder And CEO Of TurtleTree with the mission to change the face of sustainable nutrition creating real milk through cell-based methods.

Interview with Xing Danwen. Xing Danwen‘s subjects include conflicts between globalization and traditions, problematic environmental issues created by the development, the urban drama between desire and reality.

Interview with Shirley Ying Han. Shirley is a multimedia journalist in politics and global affairs and an associate producer at CNN. Her documentary film on the water crisis in the North China Plain received the Award of Excellence at the 2014 Canada International Film Festival.

Interview with textile designer Elaine Yan Ling Ng. She has focused on how the behavior of natural elements can be manifested in man-made materials to enhance the modern architecture and interior design.

Interview with Media Artist Jiayu Liu. Her work often recreates and augments the natural world and focuses on relationships between humans, nature, and the lived environment, exploring human behavior and response.

Post Author

Dominique Musorrafiti

CHINA-UNDERGROUND. Ciao! My name is Dominique. I’m Italian and I’m proud to be a mix. My father was an Italian chemical engineer and high school teacher, with Greek and Polish heritage. My mother is Haitian, she was high school language teacher, with Dominican, Spanish, French, Portuguese, African and Native American heritage. Being a mix makes me appreciate to want to understand different cultures and lifestyles. I grew up in Italy, lived few years in Haiti, travel around main European capitals, lived seven years in China, six in Spain and UK. Traveling makes me feel that we can learn something from every situation in every part of the world.

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