Earth Day 2018: Celebrations and messages

Since it's establishment on April 22nd, 1970, Earth Day is celebrated annually around the world to emphasize environmental protection and sustainability.

With this year's theme dedicated to curbing plastic pollution, the Earth Day Network has called the management of plastic as a 'global crisis'. Mobilizing its global network, it aims to build a community which understands the environmental, health and climatic consequences of using plastic.

“Plastic pollutants are turning up in everything from endangered wildlife to municipal water supplies and we, as users, of plastic must come up with solutions...We thank the government of Quebec and NYU for joining with us in this important forum that has provided a strong set of best practices for disposable plastics like plastic bags,” said Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day Network.

NASA also came up with an innovative technique, allowing the public to create shareable views of the earth along with a spacecraft orbiting it by using a range of advanced tools that help us to understand our planet better. You can share your views using the hashtag #NASA4Earth and to check out their tools, use this link.

Google also celebrated Earth Day through a doodle and took it as an opportunity pay tribute to British primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall who contributed her entire life towards conservation of nature.

With the entire planet coming together to celebrate, many celebrities and politicians also took to social media to create awareness and pledge to bring about positive changes for a sustainable future. Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged people to come together to 'mitigate the menace of climate change' as a 'tribute to our beloved Mother Earth.'

The HRD Ministry also appealed to people to deter them from using plastic.

Commemorating the 'collective responsibility' called in for the 1992 Rio declaration based on achieving harmony with nature and striking the right balance, the United Nations also held the 83rd plenary on Sunday and an interactive dialogue of the General Assembly in ECOSOC on the following Monday.​