Happy Earth Day!!!
source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090421-earth-day-facts.html
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Every day, the saying goes, is Earth Day. But it's popularly celebrated on April 22. Why?
One persistent rumor holds that April 22 was chosen because it's the birthday of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union.
"Lenin's goal was to destroy private property and this goal is obviously shared by environmentalists," the Capitalism Magazine Web site noted in a 2004 article perpetuating the theory.
Kathleen Rogers, president of Washington, D.C.-based Earth Day Network, which was founded by the original organizers of Earth Day, scoffs at the rumored communist connection.
She said April 22, 1970, was chosen for the first Earth Day in part because it fell on a Wednesday, the best part of the week to encourage a large turnout for the environmental rallies held across the country.
"It worked out perfectly, because everybody was at work and they all left," she said.
In fact, more than 20 million people across the U.S. are estimated to have participated in that first Earth Day.
Earth Day is now celebrated every year by more than a billion people in 180 nations around the world, according to Rogers.
For those whose inner environmentalist speaks loudest on April 22, Earth Day Network's Rogers encourages them to make a public commitment to take an environmental action.
"We are headed for a billion commitments to do something green," Rogers said. "And that doesn't mean think about it—it means do something."
Commitment ideas promoted by the Earth Day Network include pledging to educate friends and family on global warming or buy green products such as energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
The commitments are part of a yearlong initiative called the Green Generation, which leads up to the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in 2010.
One persistent rumor holds that April 22 was chosen because it's the birthday of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union.
"Lenin's goal was to destroy private property and this goal is obviously shared by environmentalists," the Capitalism Magazine Web site noted in a 2004 article perpetuating the theory.
Kathleen Rogers, president of Washington, D.C.-based Earth Day Network, which was founded by the original organizers of Earth Day, scoffs at the rumored communist connection.
She said April 22, 1970, was chosen for the first Earth Day in part because it fell on a Wednesday, the best part of the week to encourage a large turnout for the environmental rallies held across the country.
"It worked out perfectly, because everybody was at work and they all left," she said.
In fact, more than 20 million people across the U.S. are estimated to have participated in that first Earth Day.
Earth Day is now celebrated every year by more than a billion people in 180 nations around the world, according to Rogers.
For those whose inner environmentalist speaks loudest on April 22, Earth Day Network's Rogers encourages them to make a public commitment to take an environmental action.
"We are headed for a billion commitments to do something green," Rogers said. "And that doesn't mean think about it—it means do something."
Commitment ideas promoted by the Earth Day Network include pledging to educate friends and family on global warming or buy green products such as energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
The commitments are part of a yearlong initiative called the Green Generation, which leads up to the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in 2010.
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