earthcare balloon

| earth awareness |

Earthcare Connections established Earth Awareness Month in 2002. The month begins on March 20 and ends on April 22. Both days are marked as Earth Day. During this month, Earthcare Connections promotes the organization, its programs and environmental needs. Earthcare also launches its major fundraising campaign during this time.

| Earth Day
John McConnell, a humanitarian who involves himself in good will projects, had decided a day must be set aside for people to “rededicate themselves to the care of the earth.” Thus, he suggested that the spring equinox be designated Earth Day, with this being initiated in March 1970. He writes, “Nature’s moment...when the sun crosses the celestial equator causing the length of day and night to be equal -- [creates] a state of equilibrium throughout the Earth.”

Many people are more familiar with Earth Day on April 22. This tradition, which also began in 1970, can be referred to as the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Gaylord Nelson, a former U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, wanted to “to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda.” Thus on April 22, 1970, Nelson organized a demonstration in which 20 million participants took to the streets, parks and auditoriums all in the name of a healthy environment. In 1990, Earth Day spread to the international stage, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries. This led, eventually, to the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

| The Facts
Twenty percent of the world’s population consumes 80 percent of the world’s resources. Although estimates vary, it would take at least two to four more earths for all of the world’s population to live like the average Canadian. In the last fifty years the world economy has grown five times in volume but the numbers of poor have more than doubled. Many people are discovering that they can live richer and more meaningful lives by consuming less.