Earth Day is April 22. It was first observed 45 years ago on April 22, 1970, when\u00a0 20 million people gathered in the streets across the United States to launch an environmental movement.\u00a0 Earth Day became internationally recognized in 1990. In 2009, the United Nations renamed the event International Mother Earth Day, but it doesn’t seem to have stuck as everyone in the U.S. still calls it Earth Day.<\/p>\n

In honor of the 45th annual event, here are some facts about Earth Day: <\/a><\/p>\n

* Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin who wanted to respond to an oil spill off Santa Barbara, California.\u00a0 President Bill Clinton awarded Sen. Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom\u00a0 in 1995 for his role as Earth Day founder.<\/p>\n

* The first celebration of Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970,\u00a0 making 2015’s observance the 45th anniversary of Earth Day.<\/p>\n

* The first Earth Day got a lot of attention when more than 20 million people participated and by the end of 1970, Congress authorized the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n

* Although Earth Day originated in the United States, it went global in 1990 with 140 countries participating. In 2000, more than 180 countries participated.<\/p>\n

* Chicago made a big splash on Earth Day 2007 with festivities at Lincoln Park Zoo drawing more than 40,000 people, a single-day attendance record.<\/p>\n

* Approximately half of all American greenhouse gas emissions come from our homes and cars. The Earth Day EnergyCenter can help you develop a plan to reduce that.<\/p>\n

* In 2009, the United Nations renamed Earth Day and now calls it International Mother Earth Day. That name doesn’t appear to be catching in the U.S.<\/p>\n

* Earth Day Network members host 10,000 Earth Day events around the world. The theme of the 2015 Earth Day is Green Cities and you can find a listing of events around the world here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* We are making some progress in reducing our waste. The amount of packaging heading to landfills is almost 40% less per person than it was 20 years ago, according to Bob Lillenfeld, editor of The Use Less Stuff Report<\/a>, who arrived at the stat by\u00a0analyzing\u00a0Census Bureau and EPA data.<\/p>\n

You May Also Like: <\/strong>Tips for helping kids pick great, fun books <\/a><\/p>\n

Prior Post: <\/strong>Disney Bounding is a great way to show your Disney Side at the parks<\/a><\/p>\n

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Earth Day is April 22. It was first observed 45 years ago on April 22, 1970, when\u00a0 20 million people gathered in the streets across the United States to launch an environmental movement.\u00a0 Earth Day became internationally recognized in 1990. In 2009, the United Nations renamed the event International Mother Earth Day, but it doesn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1895"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1895"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9485,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1895\/revisions\/9485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}