Society gets so much from this beautiful Earth and yet, when does society ever get to celebrate what was given? April 22 is Earth Day and it is an annual worldwide holiday to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

“The idea for a national day to focus on the environment came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California,” EarthDay.org said.

It was not just public political figures that got mad at how the Earth was being treated. It all started from the young students who wanted to make a change and noticed something was wrong.

“Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he [Gaylord Nelson] realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda,” said EarthDay.org.

Earth day 2000 and 2010 had the biggest outcome since launching, reaching parts of the of the world that are far from developed and bringing them all together.

“Earth Day 2000 used the power of the Internet to organize activists, but also featured a drum chain that traveled from village to village in Gabon, Africa” EarthDay.Org continued to say. “Hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, DC for a First Amendment Rally. Much like 1970, Earth Day 2010 came at a time of great challenge for the environmental community. Climate change deniers, well-funded oil lobbyists, reticent politicians, a disinterested public, and a divided environmental community all contributed to the narrative—cynicism versus activism.”

Today, Earth Day is widely known and celebrated by many countries.This holiday is currently known as the largest secular observance in the world, celebrated by more than a billion people every year, and a day of action that changes human behavior and provokes policy changes. Earth Day will be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year in 2020.