Earth Day 2021, this year s observance lauding nature conservation and appreciation, is Thursday and there are several ways people can honor it in Alachua County despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
The annual holiday celebrates the start of the modern environmental movement. It began in 1970 with a Wisconsin junior senator and has grown to include over 1 billion participants in more than 190 countries worldwide, according to the organization s website.
The first Earth Day helped create the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and legislation like the Clean Air Act. In 1990, it grew outside of the country. And now, it is the largest non-religious observance in the world, the website states.