History According to The Old Farmers’ Almanac

The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970, when San Francisco activist John McConnell and Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson separately asked Americans to join in a grassroots demonstration. Dealing with dangerously serious issues concerning toxic drinking water, air pollution, and the effects of pesticides, an impressive 20 million Americans—10% of the population—ventured outdoors and protested together.

President Richard Nixon led the nation in creating the Environmental Protection Agency, which was followed with successful laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.

Today, not only is Earth Day meant to increase awareness of environmental problems, but it is also becoming a popular time for many communities to gather to clean up litter, plant trees, or simply reflect on the beauty of nature.

Earth Day Activities

In addition to the plethora of activities for community engagement provided by EarthDay.Org, WATERTODAY looks at a few suggestions to make your Earth Day memorable.

To spark a deeper conversation:

• For 2025, Earth Day Canada encourages centering action around Biodiversity citing a strong desire among Canadians for access to information on this topic and its crucial role in supporting food security and climate resilience
• The University of British Columbia offers a series of interviews on interdisciplinary solutions to complex problems; and a list of research papers on Earth Day topics

Check out what the National Film Board of Canada has to offer

Channel: Our Planet in Focus – NFB

According to NFB’s Marc St Pierre:

At a time of increasingly polarized and politicized debate over whether the phenomenon even exists, with news media reporting that the US government has begun deleting climate data, there’s consensus on climate change in the scientific community and extreme weather events are increasing around the world—what’s the current state of our thinking on this issue?

Some of the NFB’s films on the topic offer interesting and even surprising answers to that question. Metamorphosis (2018) by Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper, The Magnitude of All Things (2020) by Jennifer Abbott and Losing Blue (2023) by Leanne Allison.

Ami and Ripper’s doc informs us that the wildfire season in California is getting longer and the fires more intense every year. We also learn in Metamorphosis that 80% of the coral reefs in the Caribbean have disappeared over the past 50 years.

Abbott’s film notes that in Nunatsiavut, one of the places in the world where temperatures are warming the fastest, the ice cover is thinning, and the landscape is changing dramatically. In Kiribati, meanwhile, rising ocean levels are an everyday reality for inhabitants; in fact, scientists have predicted that the islands of this Central Pacific nation will be entirely submerged by 2100 because of rising sea levels.

The Magnitude of All Things mentions how the survival of the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Queensland, Australia, is threatened by coral bleaching.

As for Losing Blue, it shows how melting glaciers in the Canadian Rockies are changing the magnificent blue colour of surrounding lakes, and that it may disappear completely before long.

Finally... for parents and teachers, we found a myriad of teaching resources and Earth Day Activities here

WATERTODAY wishes all our viewers a thoughtful and inspiring Earth Day!