Earth Day Trivia | 60 facts about the annual event

Earth Day is an annual event to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about Earth Day.

1. Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection
2. First held on April 22, 1970
3. It now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EARTHDAY.ORG
4. It was formerly known as Earth Day Network
5. Including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries
6. The official theme for 2024 is “Planet vs. Plastics”
7. 2025 will be the 55th anniversary of Earth Day
8. In 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco, peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace
9. First be observed on March 21, 1970
10. This marks the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere
11. This day of nature’s equipoise was later sanctioned in a proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations
12. A month later, United States Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed the idea to hold a nationwide environmental teach-in on April 22, 1970
13. He hired a young activist, Denis Hayes, to be the National Coordinator. Nelson and Hayes renamed the event “Earth Day”
14. Denis and his staff grew the event beyond the original idea for a teach-in to include the entire United States
15. Key non-environmentally focused partners played major roles. Under the leadership of labor leader Walter Reuther, for example, the United Auto Workers (UAW) was the most instrumental outside financial and operational supporter of the first Earth Day
16. According to Hayes: “Without the UAW, the first Earth Day would have likely flopped!”
17. Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom award in recognition of his work
18. The first Earth Day was focused on the United States
19. In 1990, Denis Hayes, the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international and organized events in 141 nations
20. On Earth Day 2016, the landmark Paris Agreement was signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and 120 other countries
21. This signing satisfied a key requirement for the entry into force of the historic draft climate protection treaty adopted by consensus of the 195 nations present at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris
22. Numerous communities engaged in Earth Day Week actions, an entire week of activities focused on the environmental issues that the world faces
23. On Earth Day 2020, over 100 million people around the world observed the 50th anniversary in what is being referred to as the largest online mass mobilization in history
24. A similar but separate event, World Environment Day, is organized by the United Nations
25. It is observed annually on June 5
26. The theme for Earthday.org 2024 is Planet vs. Plastics and to mark that Earthday.org has called for a 60% global reduction in plastic production by 2040
27. In November 2023, to bring public attention to the health threat that microplastics pose, earthday.org released its report Babies vs. Plastics, which collated some of the latest science on the subject
28. The Guardian newspaper carried an Op Ed about the report highlighting that it is the children of the Global South who are being the most impacted by exposure to microplastics
29. In 1968, Morton Hilbert and the U.S. Public Health Service organized the Human Ecology Symposium, an environmental conference for students to hear from scientists about the effects of environmental degradation on human health
30. This was the beginning of Earth Day
31. For the next two years, Hilbert and students worked to plan the first Earth Day
32. In April 1970 – along with a federal proclamation from U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson – the first Earth Day was held
33. Project Survival, an early environmentalism-awareness education event, was held at Northwestern University on January 23, 1970
34. This was the first of several events held at university campuses across the United States in the lead-up to the first Earth Day
35. Also, Ralph Nader began talking about the importance of ecology in 1970
36. The 1960s had been a very dynamic period for ecology in the US. Pre-1960 grassroots activism against DDT in Nassau County, New York
37. And the widespread opposition to open-air nuclear weapons tests with their global nuclear fallout
38. It had inspired Rachel Carson to write her influential bestseller, Silent Spring (1962)
39. Nelson chose the date to maximize participation on college campuses for what he conceived as an “environmental teach-in”
40. He determined the week of April 19–25 was the best bet as it did not fall during exams or spring breaks
41. Moreover, it did not conflict with religious holidays such as Easter or Passover, and was late enough in spring to have decent weather
42. More students were likely to be in class, and there would be less competition with other mid-week events – so he chose Wednesday, April 22
43. The day also fell after the anniversary of the birth of noted conservationist John Muir
44. The National Park Service, John Muir National Historic Site, has a celebration every year on or around Earth Day (April 21, 22 or 23)
45. It was called Birthday–Earth Day, in recognition of Earth Day and John Muir’s contribution to the collective consciousness of environmentalism and conservation
46. Unbeknownst to Nelson, April 22, 1970, was coincidentally the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin
47. Then translated to the Gregorian calendar (which the Soviets adopted in 1918)
48. Time reported that some suspected the date was not a coincidence
49. A clue that the event was “a Communist trick”, and quoted a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution as saying, “subversive elements plan to make American children live in an environment that is good for them”
50. J. Edgar Hoover, director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, may have found the Lenin connection intriguing
51. It was alleged the FBI conducted surveillance at the 1970 demonstrations
52. The idea that the date was chosen to celebrate Lenin’s centenary still persists in some quarters
53. An idea borne out by the similarity with the subbotnik instituted by Lenin in 1920 as days on which people would have to do community service
54. This typically consisted in removing rubbish from public property and collecting recyclable material
55. Subbotniks were also imposed on other countries within the compass of Soviet power, including Eastern Europe
56. At the height of its power the Soviet Union established a nationwide subbotnik to be celebrated on Lenin’s birthday, April 22
57. It had been proclaimed a national holiday celebrating communism by Nikita Khrushchev in 1955
58. “Critics of Earth Day claim that the environmental movement is a middle class, anti-business movement that deals in mainstream conservation politics
59. It allegedly overlooks the needs of minorities and the poor who are victims of environmental racism and classism”
60. Another criticism of Earth Day is that after so many years, its continued, repetitious existence promotes the illusion that current human efforts are enough to eliminate future environmental disaster