Every year on April 22 we celebrate the wonderful planet we live on. The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970. Back then, people didn’t really care about the planet and factories were pumping out gas. In the years leading to 1970 lots of things happened that helped people become aware. In 1969 there were tons of student anti war protests. A Michigan senator decided to combine these things by teaching people about the world and organizing protests. There were thousands of protests across the country. Groups that had been fighting issues such as wildfires, oil spills, and extinction, all

united to celebrate the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. It helped the US pass laws helping the environment. A few decades later in 1990 countries came together to get Earth Day to go global. Over 200 million people in 141 countries participated. 30 years later in 2000 over 5000 groups in 184 countries reached out to hundreds of millions of people. They used the Internet to let even more people know about Earth Day. This showed that people cared about the world. Today Earth Day is celebrated by 1 billion people. It helps us take care of the wonderful planet we live on.