Happy Earth Day 2017!

April 22nd is Earth Day 2017, a day devoted to conservation and environmental awareness. Earth Day has its origins back in 1970, when United States Senator Gaylord Nelson founded the holiday as an environmental teach-in. Danis Hayes, who was involved in an unrelated Earth Day celebration earlier that year, took Nelson’s idea and spread it to the international community. As a result, Earth Day is celebrated in 192 countries, making it the largest secular holiday in the world. Each year the Earth Day Network chooses a campaign: 2017’s is “environmental and scientific literacy.” To this end, the Earth Day Network is launching teach-in and Earth Day toolkits, since each community observes Earth Day in their own way. The Earth Day Network hopes that Earth Day 2017 will help pave the way for a new generation of green voters, and will usher in an even greater push towards renewable energy technology.