International Mother Earth Day. The goal of this holiday, which was proclaimed official by the United Nations General Assembly in 2009, is to make humanity pay attention to the vulnerability of the Earth’s ecosystem.

The first Earth Day, a celebration of Mother Earth, took place in 1970, following the lead of the activist U.S. senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson. A group of students led by Harvard graduate student Dennis Hayes, despite the lack of funding to organize a mass event, helped alert the public to the problem of ecology.

Earth Day © Depositphotos

Earth Day © Depositphotos | Lorelyn Medina

A few hundred schools, including about 20 million people, joined the demonstration. Even the U.S. Senate decided to call a recess so that senators could take part in the demonstration. “Earth Day was made by itself,” claimed Sen. Nelson, who got a Liberty Medal for his contribution to the establishment of this holiday.

There is nothing surprising about it. Humanity was starting to understand how much devastation it does to the ecosystem of its own home – Earth – and started to pay attention. Faced with the possibility of nuclear warfare, multiplied by the uncertainty of the unstable relationship between the USSR and the U.S., people started to seriously worry about life and the health of future generations of Americans. Starting in 1971, Earth Week has become very popular in U.S., taking place on the third week of April every year. The International Mother Earth Day is directly related to the Arbor Day that has been observed in the U.S. since 1872.

Unfortunately, humanity tends to destroy much more than it creates. We will need more than one annual Earth Day and Arbor Day to compensate for the damage that we have done to our planet. Each person can take part in this noble venture, and it’s not even necessarily to plant trees. Depositphotos supports days dedicated to our planet with thousands of photos and vector illustrations from our huge library. Imagine: with the help of this content you will be able to make a great contribution to the process of saving our planet: by reminding people about the planet’s value, and creating ecological design projects that bring attention to Earth’s vulnerability for years to come.

Enjoying the nature © Depositphotos

Enjoying the nature © Depositphotos | szefei

African wilderness © Depositphotos

African wilderness © Depositphotos | Steno Wac

Earth Day © Depositphotos

Earth Day © Depositphotos | Lorelyn Medina

Icicles in Moss © Depositphotos

Icicles in Moss © Depositphotos | Marlene Frazier

Animals in nature © Depositphotos

Animals in nature © Depositphotos | piotr adamski 

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