Every year on April 22, the world pauses to think about the planet. Brands turn their logos green. Companies announce pledges. Schools plant trees. And then, on April 23, most of it fades away. Earth Day arose out of environmental crisis, but over five decades, it has acquired a patina of ritual that sometimes obscures more than it reveals.
A day born from disaster
Earth Day was founded on April 22, 1970, largely catalysed by Senator Gaylord Nelson in the wake of a catastrophic oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. Twenty million Americans took to the streets that first year — a staggering ten percent of the US population, and one of the largest civic demonstrations in American history. It worked. Within two years, the US had created the Environmental Protection Agency and passed landmark legislation: the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act.
Today, Earth Day is observed in more than 193 countries, coordinated by the nonprofit Earth Day Network, with billions participating in activities from tree-planting campaigns and coastal clean-ups to digital pledges and classroom lessons. The 2024 theme, “Planet vs Plastics,” drew attention to the approximately 400 million tonnes of plastic produced every year.
In the intervening decades, progress has been made. The ozone layer is healing. Lead has been removed from petrol in almost every country. Renewable energy now accounts for a growing share of global electricity. Recycling infrastructure, however imperfect, exists where it didn’t before. These are the fruits of persistent advocacy, much of it seeded by early Earth Day momentum.
And yet, as biodiversity loss accelerates and the climate crisis deepens, the question is no longer whether Earth Day has achieved anything, but whether what it has become is still fit for purpose.
Some uncomfortable questions
Greenwashing and the corporate takeover
One of the most persistent criticisms of Earth Day is that corporations have learned to weaponise it. Companies that contribute significantly to pollution often use April 22 to announce minor “green” initiatives — a recyclable lid here, a pledge to use renewable energy by 2050 there — while core business practices remain unchanged. This greenwashing doesn’t just mislead consumers; it actively dilutes the urgency of the conversation. Meanwhile, Earth Day has increasingly become an occasion to sell things: tote bags, “eco-friendly” water bottles, sustainably packaged snacks. The irony of celebrating Earth by creating and buying more stuff is one that critics are right to flag.
Whose voices are centred?
The mainstream environmental movement has historically been led by white, affluent voices. The communities most severely affected by climate change — low-income neighbourhoods, communities of colour, indigenous peoples on the front lines of environmental destruction — have too often been marginalised. There is also an implicit elitism in framing “Nature” as somewhere you travel to: a national park, a pristine wilderness. For millions of people, Nature is the park at the end of their street, the birds outside their window. Any Earth Day worth its name must make room for that.
Celebration when we need action
Earth Day has tilted too far toward celebration and away from protest. Planting a tree is good. Lobbying elected representatives, demanding accountability from fossil fuel companies, and pushing for the radical policy shifts required to keep global temperatures within liveable bounds — these are vital. Earth Day’s origins were explicitly political. Somewhere along the way, that urgency got softened into an aesthetic.
364 days of forgetting
There is something problematic about dedicating a single day to the environment. The enthusiasm for green pledges reliably diminishes after April 22. For many sustainability departments, April serves more as a PR requirement, a checkbox, than a moment of genuine commitment.
Making Earth Day more than a date
Earth Day shouldn’t be abandoned, but it should be reimagined. Used as a deadline rather than a celebration, a moment to audit progress on year-round commitments rather than the starting gun for a week of activity that quietly trails off. That means prioritising systemic changes, holding major polluters accountable, supporting legislative action, and amplifying marginalised and indigenous voices leading the most important environmental justice fights. And it means shifting the culture of Earth Day from “buy green things” to simply using less.
Small things, done every day
We tend to believe that doing something meaningful for the Earth requires sacrifices: giving up exotic holidays, attending risky protests, installing solar panels, volunteering weekends. These things matter enormously. But because they take time, money, and organisation, many of us feel daunted and end up doing less than we would like.
What if Earth Day were not 24 hours of grand gestures, but every day of smaller, habitual ones?
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The bigger actions
Fly less · Volunteer locally · Participate in activism · Support renewable energy · Vote with the environment in mind · Rewild your garden · Host a clothes swap · Plant a tree · Organise a local clean-up · Donate to environmental causes.
The daily habits
Walk outdoors and pick up litter as you go · Observe Nature around you · Share your experiences on social media · Read or watch something Nature-themed · Talk to people about what Nature means to you · Eat plant-based meals · Buy less, shop local · Sign a petition (yes, they do work).
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The daily list doesn’t look heroic, does it? Yet noticing Nature, talking about what you see and feel, and sharing a connection with the living world builds the emotional foundation that makes the bigger actions feel less like obligations and more like natural next steps, born of care rather than duty.
Habits aren’t formed in a day. They’re built over days and weeks, until they become simply the way we live. A genuine long-term commitment, however small, is worth more than a single day of symbolic action. The planet doesn’t ask us to perform our concern once a year. It needs us to live it, consistently, within the fabric of ordinary life. Earth Day, at its best, is about expressing our care for the planet as we would for the people we love. Every day, without fanfare, without needing a date in the calendar to remind us.
Tags
- Collective action
- Earth Day
