Earth Day, also known as International Mother Earth Day is an annual event observed across the globe on 22 April, during which people engage in various activities in honour of the Mother Earth pledging to do something to protect the environment.
(Also Read: Earth Day 2014: Google Doodle Glorifies Mother Earth with Bizarre Creatures; 5 Things to Know about Them)
Earth Day was first celebrated in the year 1970, and is now coordinated globally by Earth Day Network, and celebrated in more than 192 countries each year.
History and Origin
In 1969, at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco, peace activist John McConnell proposed for a day in recognition and honour of the Earth and the concept of Peace, to be first celebrated on 21 March 1970, which is the first day of spring or Vernal Equinox in the northern hemisphere.
A month later, a separate Earth Day was held on 22 April 1970. It was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson, who was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award in recognition of his work.
Although this 22 April Earth Day was only focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, extended the celebration to the rest of the world in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations.
Significance
The earth has been used and exploited for various greedy needs of human beings, while people living in the same earth has been largely ignorant of the level of pollution and pressure they are exerting on the earth.
International Mother Earth Day 2014, like any other earth days, will focus on green cities, mobilizing millions of people to create a sustainable, healthy environment by greening communities worldwide. The United Nation estimates that today, more than half of the world's population live in cities. As the urban population grows rapidly, the effects of climate change worsen. It is certain days like the International Mother Earth Day that gives our cities a chance to evolve.
Mother Earth is a common expression for the planet Earth in different countries and regions - an expression that reveres the importance of the earth, our collective mother. It is an idea that has existed since time immemorial that seeks to reflect the interdependence that exists among human beings, other living species and the planet, the United Nations notes.
Here are 10 eternally inspiring quotes about Mother Earth that will touch your heart:
1. "I hardly can sleep. I feel that my target now is really to save Mother Earth for humanity. And it's doable." - Imelda Marcos
2. "Sooner or later, we will have to recognize that the Earth has rights, too, to live without pollution. What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without Mother Earth, but the planet can live without humans."-Evo Morales
3. "Those who contemplate the beauty of the Earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." - Rachel Carson
4. "I remember feeling that pieces of me were scattered around the world; I belonged to her, Mother Earth." - Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina
5. "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed." - Mahatma Gandhi
6. "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea." -Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
7. "The only thing I want is to awaken all humans on the planet that we are living on Mother Earth." Afrika Bambaataa
8. "When no one is watching Mother Earth, and most of the time no one is, she sings softly to herself.
Certainly no one is watching after her, to the point where she's now calling herself M. Earth, using her first initial only, like the early women writers who did not want their work to be automatically dismissed because of their gender disadvantage" - Sharon Weil, Donny and Ursula Save the World
9. "The mother-earth may not like the way we preserve her...if any." Toba Beta, Master of Stupidity
10. "What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? " - Henry David Thoreau, Familiar Letter
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
(Ed:AJ)
