Earth Day 2022: Everything you need to know about Earth Day
Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 that celebrates the planet Earth and raises public awareness about environmental issues. The day is observed worldwide with rallies, conferences, school projects and other activities.
Sen. Gaylord Nelson started Earth Day in 1970. The event helped increase public support for the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address environmental issues. Earth Day has since contributed to the passage of many environmental laws in the U.S.
Earth Day reminds people to think about humanity's values, the threats the planet faces and ways to help protect the environment, Susan Clayton, a professor of psychology and environmental studies at The College of Wooster in Ohio, previously told Live Science.
"Thinking about the history of environmental activism and the way individuals have worked together to change policy can make us more optimistic about the ability to make positive changes in the future," Clayton said.
When is Earth Day 2022?Earth Day 2022 will take place on Friday, April 22. It will be the 52nd anniversary of Earth Day and marked by various events around the world.
According to EARTHDAY.ORG (opens in new tab), a nonprofit that coordinates these events, the theme of Earth Day 2022 is "Invest In Our Planet." This theme is meant to encourage businesses, governments and citizens to act now on climate change and other issues for a sustainable future.
Despite there having been more than 50 Earth Days, climate change and other environmental issues still threaten the health of the planet. Michael Mann, a distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State and author of "The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet" (PublicAffairs, 2021), notes Earth Day is an opportunity to take stock of where we stand in the battle to live sustainably on this planet.
"We are not yet on the path toward stabilizing the warming of our planet below dangerous levels," Mann told Live Science in an email. "Earth Day is an opportunity to have a conversation about what we need to do. Truth be told, every day should be Earth Day. Without a livable planet, we have nothing."
Related: Why celebrate Earth Day? Here are 12 reasons.
When did Earth Day begin?Nelson started Earth Day after seeing the environmental damage of an oil spill in Santa Barbara, California in 1969. Inspired by student anti-Vietnam War protests, he organized a national "teach-in" on college campuses that focused on educating the public about the environment, according to EARTHDAY.ORG (opens in new tab).
Nelson persuaded Rep. Pete McCloskey of California to be co-chairman and recruited political activist Denis Hayes as national coordinator. With a staff of 85 built by Hayes, they were able to rally 20 million people across the U.S. on April 22, 1970, according to a 2012 blog post on the United Nations Foundation (opens in new tab) website by John Maleri, then associate director of Earth Day.
The team chose April 22, a Wednesday, because they thought a weekday falling between Spring break and students' exam finals would encourage the highest number of students to participate, according to EARTHDAY.ORG. On that day, thousands of colleges and universities held protests against environmental destruction. But it wasn't just students who participated, the event gained national media attention and many people gathered in public areas to talk about the environment and find ways to defend the planet. In total, about 10% of the entire U.S. population participated.
"It was on that day that Americans made it clear that they understood and were deeply concerned over the deterioration of our environment and the mindless dissipation of our resources," Nelson wrote in the EPA Journal (opens in new tab) in 1980.
The annual event grew in size and popularity after 1970. In 1990, Earth Day went global, with 200 million people in 141 countries participating in the event, according to EARTHDAY.ORG.
Related: Earth Day Doodle celebrates extreme animal life
Earth Day is celebrated to raise public awareness about the environment and mark the annual anniversary of the first Earth Day. Decades later, environmental issues continue. EARTHDAY.ORG notes the fight for a clean environment is becoming more urgent to address environmental issues, especially climate change.
Climate change is caused by human activities such as burning fossil fuels, which emit heat-trapping carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that raise global temperatures and disrupt weather patterns. The impacts of climate change around the world include extreme weather events such as massive floods and intense wildfires. In 2021, thousands of scientists warned that ignoring climate change will yield "untold suffering" for humanity.
"We need to fight climate change harder, to keep our planet habitable and flourishing," Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan, previously told Live Science in 2020, as Earth Day celebrated its 50th anniversary.
What has been the impact of Earth Day?The first Earth Day helped put environmental issues on the national agenda in the U.S. The event also inspired various environmental legislation in the 1970s, including the Clean Water Act (1972) and the Toxic Substances Control Act (1976), according to Columbia University's State of the Planet (opens in new tab) news website.
And the impact of Earth Day has gone far beyond the U.S. For example, the United Nations General Assembly formally recognized April 22 as International Mother Earth Day in 2009, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (opens in new tab). On Earth Day 2016, the United Nations adopted the Paris Climate Agreement (opens in new tab), which saw nations around the world aim to keep global warming preferably below 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) and well below 2 C (3.6 F) compared to pre-industrial levels.
However, despite Earth Day moments such as the Paris Climate Agreement pledges, climate change is far from resolved. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at the Economist Sustainability Summit (opens in new tab) in 2022 that the 1.5-degree goal is on "life support," and with emissions continuing to increase, "we are sleepwalking to climate catastrophe."
Each year, organizations and individuals engage in Earth Day activities, projects, and campaigns to promote, protect or restore the environment. Earth Day quizzes are one popular activity, and organizations such as NASA (opens in new tab), Conservation International (opens in new tab) and EARTHDAY.ORG have online quizzes for people to test their environmental knowledge. Children in the U.S. often celebrate by creating Earth Day-themed school projects such as Earth Day crafts and Earth Day drawings.
"There are two simple ways to celebrate Earth Day to make the world a little better," Nathaniel Weston, an associate professor of environmental science at Villanova University in Pennsylvania previously told Live Science. "The first is to promote understanding of important environmental issues so that more people are aware of the critical actions we need to take to protect our environment. The second is to commit yourself to service on or around Earth Day — plant some trees, clean up a stream or help your local community garden."
Related stories—10 signs that Earth's climate is off the rails
—Human influence on global warming is 'unequivocal,' IPCC report says
—Landsat satellites: 12 amazing images of Earth from space
Addressing climate change requires widespread and dramatic political action. A 2022 report by the UN's latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that "rapid, deep and immediate" cuts are needed to global carbon dioxide emissions across every section of society to stop a climate disaster, Live Science previously reported. In other words, individual Earth Day activities like planting a tree or buying "eco-friendly" products will not stop global temperature rises and climate breakdown.
Mann suggests using the day to talk about the climate crisis. Discuss with your friends, family, neighbors, and "anyone else within earshot the need for policy action, and for voting in politicians who will support climate-friendly policies and voting out those who won't," he said.
Additional resourcesTo learn more about Earth Day 2022 and events taking place on April 22, check out the EARTHDAY.ORG (opens in new tab) website. For suggestions on Earth Day activities, project resources, and ideas for teachers, check out the EPA (opens in new tab) website. For more information about Earth Day's founder Gaylord Nelson, check out "The Man from Clear Lake: Earth Day Founder Senator Gaylord Nelson (opens in new tab)" (University of Wisconsin Press, 2009), available to buy at Amazon.
BibliographyConservation International, "Earth Day quiz," 2022. https://www.conservation.org/quizzes/earth-day-quiz
EARTHDAY.ORG, "Earth Day 2022," 2022. https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2022/
EARTHDAY.ORG, "The history of Earth Day." https://www.earthday.org/history/
Fecht, S., State of the Planet, "What the First Earth Day Achieved," April 21, 2020. https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/04/21/first-earth-day-achievements/
Howell, E., Space.com, "Satellites over Europe track massive floods in Germany and Belgium," July 16, 2021. https://www.space.com/satellites-monitor-flooding-in-germany-belgium-july-2021
Live Science Staff, "Why celebrate Earth Day? Here are 12 reasons." April 22, 2020. https://www.livescience.com/earth-day-50th-anniversary.html
Maleri, J., "History of Earth Day," April 23, 2012. https://unfoundation.org/blog/post/history-of-earth-day/
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, "Earth Day quiz," updated March 23, 2022. https://climate.nasa.gov/earth-day-quiz/
Nelson, G., EPA Journal, "Earth Day '70: What It Meant," April, 1980. https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/earth-day-70-what-it-meant.html
Specktor, B., Live Science, "Ignoring climate change will yield 'untold suffering,' panel of 14,000 scientists warns," July 28, 2021. https://www.livescience.com/earth-vital-signs-climate-change-suffering.html
United Nations Environment Programme, "Why Earth Day is more important than ever," April 21, 2020. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/why-earth-day-more-important-ever
United Nations, ""1.5-degree goal is on life support" - UN chief | Economist Sustainability Summit | United Nations [video]," YouTube, March 21, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlcd0k3fpjE
This article was originally written by Live Science contributor Alina Bradford and has since been updated.
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