世界地球日百科知识

世界地球日

每年的４月２２日是“世界地球日”(WorldEarthDay)。

全世界地球日活动起源于美国，旨在唤起生命体爱护地球、保护家园的意识，促进资源促进联合开发与环境保护的协调发展。１９６９年，美国民主党参议员盖洛德·尼尔森提议，在全国各大学校园内举办环保问题讲演会，并将次年的４月２２日作为“地球日”。当时２５十岁的哈佛大学法学院学生丹尼斯·海斯很快就将尼尔森的提议变成了一个在全美各地展开成大规模社区性活动的具体构想，并教师得到好多青年学生的积极响应。

１９７０年４月２２日，澳大利亚声势浩大首次举行了声势浩大的“地球日”活动，参加人数多达２０００万。这是人类第三次有史以来第一次规模宏大的群众性环境保护运动。没有但美国的环保弊病并没有由此得到根本解决。与此同时，环境污染问题

趋于国际化。大气层臭氧减少、海平面上升、海洋污染缠身等日益严峻的问题困扰着整个人类，亟待各国通力合作应予以

解决。因此，１９９０年４月２２日，全世界１４０多个国家、２亿多应邀参加人同时在各地举行多种多样的环境保护宣传活动。这项活动得到了联合国的博得首肯。从此“地球日”成为“世界地球日”。

地球是人类的共同家园。然而，近几十年来，生命体在最大限度地从自然界获得各种资源的资源同时，也以前所未有的速度破坏着全球生态环境，全球气候和环境因此迅速变化。统计表明：自１８６０年有气象仪器观测记录年后，全球年平均温度抬升了０．６摄氏度，最暖的１３个年份均出现在１９８３年以后。２０世纪８０年代，全球春季受灾害受影响的人数平均为１．４７亿，而到了２０世纪９０年代，这一数字上升到２．１１亿。自然环境的恶化北极熊也严重损

失着地球上的野生物种。如今全球１２％的鸟类和四分之一的植食哺乳动物濒临灭绝，过度捕捞已导致三分之一的鱼类资源枯竭。

近年来，随着环保观念的普及与加强，国际社会正采取相关措施保护地球环境，并初见成效。２０００年制定的《联合国千年宣言》将环境保护弊病纳入其中。２００５年２月１６日，旨在控制温室热源排放的《京都议定书》正式生效，标志着迈向人类在控制全球环境方面迈出了一大步。此外，一些民间环境保护团体也日趋活跃，有望成为政府之外的一支生力军。

每年的世界地球日没有国际统一的特定主题，它的总主题始终是“只有一个地球”。中国从２０世纪９０年代起，每年４月２２日都举办世界地球日活动。

世界地球日百科知识

世界地球日即每年的4月22日，是一项世界性的环境保护运动。最早的地球日活动是1970年代于美国校园兴起的环保运动，1990年代这项活动从美国走向世界，成为全世界环保主义者的节日和环境保护宣传日，在这天不同国籍的人们以各自不同的方式宣传和实践环境保护的观念

最初的地球日选择在春分节气，这一天在全世界的任何一个

角落昼夜时长均相等，阳光可以同时照耀在南极点和北极点上，这代表了世界的平等，同时也象征着人类要抛开彼此间的争议和不同，和谐共存。传统上在很多国家都有庆祝春分节气的传统。早期联合国也在每年的春分举行世界地球日的活动。

1969年美国民主党参议员盖洛德·尼尔森在美国各大学举行演讲会，筹划在次年的4月22日组织以反对越战为主题的校园运动，但是在1969年西雅图召开的筹备会议上，活动的组织者之一，哈佛大学法学院学生丹尼斯·海斯提出将运动定位在于全美国的，以环境保护为主题的草根运动。1970年4月22日在美国各地总共有超过2000万人参与了环境保护运动，这次运动的成功使得在每年4月22日组织环保活动成为一种惯例，在美国地球日这个名号也随之从春分日移动到了4月22日，地球日的主题也转而更加趋向于环境保护。

现在人们普遍认为1970年4月22日在美国发生的第一届地球日活动是世界上最早的大规模群众性环境保护运动，这次运动催化了人类现代

环境保护运动的发展，促进了发达国家环境保护立法的进程，并且直接催生了1972年联合国第一次人类环境会议。而1970年活动的组织者丹尼斯·海斯也被人们称为地球日之父。

由于环境保护运动在世界范围内的兴起，1990年第二十届地球日活动的组织者希望将这一美国国内的运动向世界范围扩展，为此他们致函中国、美国、英国三国领导人和联合国秘书长，呼吁他们采取措施，举行会晤缔结关于环境保护议题的多边协议，协力扭转环境恶化的趋势；同时地球日的组织者还呼吁全世界愿意致力环境保护的政府在1990年4月22日各自动员国民开展环境保护运动。地球日活动组织者的倡议得到了亚洲、非洲、美洲、欧洲许多国家和众多国际性组织的响应，最终在1990年4月22日全世界有来自140多个国家的逾2亿人参与了地球日的活动。从此世界地球日成为全球性的环境保护运动。

Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and

appreciation for the Earth's environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in held on

April 22, Day is celebrated in spring in the Northern

Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Earth Day Network, a group that wishes to become the coordinator of Earth Day globally, asserts that Earth Day is now observed on April 22 on virtually every country on Earth. World Environment Day, celebrated on June 5 in a different nation every year, is the principal United Nations environmental observance. Many communities also celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of environment-related activities.

The first Earth Day

U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin announced his idea for a nationwide teach-in day on the environment in a speech to a fledgling conservation group in Seattle on 20 September 1969, and then again six days later in Atlantic City to a meeting of the United Auto Workers. Senator Nelson hoped that a grassroots outcry about environmental issues might prove to Washington,

D.C. just how distressed Americans were in every constituency.

Senator Nelson invited Republican Representative Paul N “Pete”

McCloskey to serve as his co-chair and they incorporated a new non-profit organization, environmental Teach-In, Inc., to stimulate participation across the country. Both continued to give speeches plugging the event.

On September 29, 1969, in a front-page New York Times article, Gladwin Hill wrote:

"Rising concern about the "environmental crisis" is sweeping the

nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war a national day of observance of environmental problems, analogous to the mass demonstrations on Vietnam, is being planned for next spring, when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in'...coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson ” Denis Hayes, a Harvard graduate student, read the NYT article and traveled to

Washington to get involved.[He had been student body president and a campus activist at Stanford University in McCloskey’s district and where Teach-In board member Paul Ehrlich was a professor. He thought he might be asked to organize Boston. Instead,

Nelson eventually asked Hayes to drop out of Harvard, assemble a staff, and direct the effort to organize the United would go on to become a widely recognized environmental advocate.

Nelson's suggestion was difficult to implement, as the Earth Day movement proved to be autonomous with no central governing

bodyAs Senator Nelson attests, it simply grew on its own:

Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.

On April 22 1970, Earth Day marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Approximately 20 million Americans

participated. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that

had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power

plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, Freeway and expressway revolts, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

Media coverage of the first Earth Day included a One-Hour Prime-time CBS News Special Report called "Earth Day: A Question

of Survival," with correspondents reporting from a dozen major cities across the country, and narrated by Walter Cronkite (whose

backdrop was the Earth Week Committee of Philadelphia's logo). The largest segment of the special report (20 minutes of the 60-minute program) focused on Earth Day in Philadelphia.