Earth Day, was founded in 1970 to provide an annual date on which the whole world would focus on a common cause – the care of the Earth. Earth Day came at a time when Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8’s. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. “Environment” was a word in the dictionary with little connection to our daily lives.

But, things were about to change. In January 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin called for an Environmental Earth Day to be held on April 22, 1970. On that day in April, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Groups that had been fighting against oils spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife realized they shared common values.

Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts.

In 1990 observance of Earth Day went global. A group of environmental leaders mobilized 200 million people in 141 countries, boosting recycling efforts worldwide, and paving the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

As the millennium approached the focus became global warming and the push for clean energy. By Earth Day 2000, with the help of the Internet, 5,000 environmental groups around the world reached out to hundreds of millions of people in 184 countries. Earth Day 2000 sent the message loud and clear that citizens around the world wanted quick action on clean energy.

What can you do to protect our planet? Reduce air pollution? Protect our water supply and the water quality? What about trash? How important are our forests? Paper or plastic for bagging groceries? What about in the classroom? What about old cell phones, computers and TVs?

What are the consequences of air pollution and how can we reduce it?