It’s Earth Day!

Today is finally Earth Day! Today, over one billion people in 192 countries—from Zimbabwe to Albania to Indonesia—take action to protect the planet. They organize demonstrations, contact their elected officials, plant trees, clean up their communities, demand renewable energy targets, and much more. This year’s theme is Green Cities. Earth Day is a day of action. And action is exactly what we need. The environmental challenges of our time are too great and too urgent for us not to march, teach, and rally for a safe, stable climate and a planet where our children can survive and thrive. Let’s make that happen today. Here are a few highlight events that we’d like to share with you. In Haiti, B the Hope for Haiti is organizing an educational session for primary school students in Haiti to teach them about recycling, composting, and the importance of proper waste management. Students will also learn about re-forestation, and about how to use recycled solar ovens. They’ll finish the day by planting Moringa trees. The City of Des Moines, Iowa, meanwhile, is hosting their 2014 Earth Day Trash Brash, a collaborative project between surrounding cities, citizens, and corporations and works throughout the greater Des Moines metro to remove litter, beautify public lands, and clean out invasive species in an effort to improve Iowa’s water quality and waterways. 7,000 miles to the southwest, The University of Fiji is planning their first Earth Day event this year! They will host a clean-up event to improve waste management on campus and help students learn about environmental responsibility. In Riga, Latvia, Homo Ecos is hosting an Urban Gardening Workshop for Earth Day. They will inform people about eco-friendly composting, how to recycle old bottles and other materials into planters, and how to take care of seedlings and plants in your urban garden. Green Columbus’ 8th annual Earth Day event is themed “Gratitude,” and involves a week of volunteer cleanup events from April 19-26. Over 3,600 volunteers participated in the cleanup last year and more are expected for 2014. In the Philippines, Earth Day Network Philippines stages its first-ever Pro-Earth Run 2014, an advocacy campaign to encourage people to Protect, Respect, and Oversee the sensible and sustainable care for Mother Earth. In Uganda, the 4-H Million Trees Project is creating tree nursery projects at schools and helping the students begin the process of planting 50,000 trees. 2,000 miles northeast, the students of GUtech in Oman are hosting their annual Earth Day Event at Al Sahwa Park. They will promote “green life” by selling local fresh products and encouraging people to plant a tree. These are just a few examples of the thousands of Earth Day events going on around the world. Thanks for all you do to the protect the planet!