World Earth Day is celebrated globally to draw everyone’s attention to the Earth’s wellbeing and call people to support environmental protection. World Earth Day 2020 will be observed amidst the coronavirus pandemic. However, not all hope is lost.

World Earth Day 2020 also marks the 50th anniversary of the annual event. This year, going out and congregation for spreading awareness would not be possible due to the viral outbreak. But Earthday.org or the official site dedicated to the annual event is asking everyone to flood the world on World Earth Day with “hope, optimism and action”.

History of Earth Day Celebration

The first Earth Day celebrations took place in two thousand colleges and universities, roughly ten thousand primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of communities across the United States. More importantly, it "brought 20 million Americans out into the spring sunshine for peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform." It now is observed in 192 countries, and coordinated by the nonprofit Earth Day Network, chaired by the first Earth Day 1970 organizer Denis Hayes, according to whom Earth Day is now "the largest secular holiday in the world, celebrated by more than a billion people every year." Walt Kelly created an anti-pollution poster featuring his comic strip character Pogo with the quotation "We have met the enemy and he is us" to promote the 1970 Earth Day. Environmental groups have sought to make Earth Day into a day of action to change human behavior and provoke policy changes.