Mark your calendars everyone because April 22, which is the 46th annual celebration of Earth Day, is right around the corner. Earth Day is a worldwide event, where millions of people from across the globe go green to help improve the environment. Some ways people go green could include picking up litter on the streets, carpooling to conserve gas, or planting new trees and flowers in one’s neighborhood.

The goal for Earth Day and the Earth Day Network in general is to mobilize the environment to build a healthy world, address rapid climate change, and protect the Earth for the future. According to the article “Earth Day,” the first Earth Day was celebrated in the United States on April 22, 1970, where around 20 million Americans activated the modern environmental movement. This movement in 1970 sparked the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.

Twenty years later, Earth Day took a worldwide turn that assembled 200 million people from around the entire globe who wanted to make positive changes to the environment. Ever since then, Earth Day has grown bigger and bigger each year. Furthermore, people are developing more and more ways to help preserve and promote a clean environment. Today, there are more than 1 billion people who participate in Earth Day activities each year, which is about 1/7 of the world’s population.

The fight for a cleaner environment still continues, as climate change and increasing pollution becomes an increasing problem every day. There are many ways in which you can help preserve the environment not only on Earth Day, but in everyday life. Some activities you can do to “go-green” are: recycling paper and plastic products rather than throwing them away in a garbage can, walking, riding a bike or carpooling to conserve gas, using rechargeable batteries, quit littering and even pick up litter in your neighborhood, and reusing products to avoid assembling unnecessary waste. Hopefully you will join in on these activities to go-green and help preserve the environment.