Earth Day 2008: join the 500 million worldwide who will mark it

Earth Day is April 22 and 500 million worldwide will participate in activities aimed at improving the environment. Starting in 1970, Earth Day had 20 million participants, and its extraordinary growth since then reflects our increasing concern over environmental threats such as climate change.

U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson initiated Earth Day to demonstrate popular political support for an environmental agenda. Since then, Earth Day has grown into a global exercise to promote environmental awareness, appreciation and action.

Among environmental challenges, climate change is a leading concern for most Canadians—and for good reason. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a stark report in 2007 stating that "Unmitigated climate change would, in the long term, be likely to exceed the capacity of natural, managed and human systems to adapt." A highly respected group, the IPCC received the Nobel Peace Prize for its effort “to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change".

According to Statistics Canada, nine out of ten Canadians rate the environment as one of their top concerns. But despite this, there is a large gap between our values and our environmental performance. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ranked Canada 28th out of 30 industrialized countries in a study that looked at indicators such as air, water, energy, waste, climate change, ozone depletion, agriculture, transportation, and biological diversity. To address these issues, groups such as the Suzuki Foundation have offered blueprints to take Canada to a sustainable future.

An improved environment will require innovative policy shifts by government and action by individuals. For opportunities to participate in Earth Day events in your area, visit the Canadian Earth Day web site. And to discover your personal impact on the environment, take the Earth Day Network’s Ecological Footprint Quiz.