A day for the future of the Earth

Every April 22, more than six million Canadians join a billion people in nearly 190 countries to honour our planet and all its riches.
Earth Day, the most celebrated environmental event, challenges our notion of sustainability and questions what actions we’re capable of to help protect its myriad ecosystems.
Earth Day is a time to ask about our stewardship of the Earth, a time to ask what habits we can change for the next year — and over a lifetime.
Earth Day began in 1970 and has been called the birth of the worldwide environmental movement. It wasn’t the first time people acted to protect the fragile planet, but it was the first time efforts were recognized on such a grand scale.
Founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson 39 years ago as an environmental “teach-in”, Earth Day was seen as a grassroots demonstration that nationwide environmental protest could be a catalyst for change.
Nelson had taken a trip to Santa Barbara in 1969 to survey damage from a horrific coastal oil spill. Incensed, the senator flew back to Washington with a plan — but he really had no idea whether the masses would pick up on his idea.
“It was a gamble,” he recalls, “but it worked.”
Five months before that first Earth Day, the media began to report on the rising concerns of an environmental crisis, a movement fuelled by college students and, in its infancy, confined to campuses. But Earth Day became one immense coast-to-coast rally that attracted 20 million participants.
Finally, it seemed, there was an umbrella under which every branch of environmental protest could gather, whether their interests were aimed towards oil spills, pollution from factories, toxic pesticides, or wildlife preservation. Once those first participants realized how many others shared their values, the tipping point was reached and change began.
The first Earth Day spurred the American government to pass clean air and water acts and to establish the Environmental Protection Agency.
The non-profit Earth Day Network (www.earthday.net) continues to run Earth Day activities, connecting 17,000 organizations and hundreds of thousands of educators seeking change to local, national, and global policies by involving individuals in environmental citizenship.
In Canada, Earth Day has grown into Earth Week and even Earth Month to accommodate the profusion of events and projects. In Victoria, more than 5,000 people take part in an Earth Walk. In Oakville, 2,000 people participate in a waterway clean-up project. In Edmonton, 30,000 turn up for an all-day festival of live music and hands-on activities.
The intent of a one-day-a-year gathering of conscience, energy, and excitement is meant to spur year-round progressive action.
Earth Day has motivated some people to volunteer for agencies that help protect the environment. For others it’s all about organizing local events to heighten optimism through work of their own. Taking on the initiative personally can mean installing solar panels on the roof of your home, launching a community garden, or lobbying politicians to effect greater change. Most of all, thought, it means changing your habits.
Matt Hill and Stephanie Tait have spent the past year running across North America to inspire some of that individual change in habit. Their marathon-a-day pace is meant to encourage people to perform more than a million environmental actions.
The couple’s 17,700 km Run For One Planet odyssey began May 4, 2008 in Vancouver and has seen them visit every Planet Organic store in Canada to share stories about the importance of everyday environmental responsibility.
Meet them at the Victoria Planet Organic Market on April 26 when they stop by. In the meantime, you can check out their progress at www.runforoneplanet.com