Happy Earth day!!

 

It's Earth Day 2016 today so it's the perfect time to start thinking about the planet we live on - and how to save it. Every year, more than one billion people across the world mark the event by showing support for environmental protection. Festivals, rallies and outdoor events are held in nearly 200 countries - often, with the support of A-list celebrities and political leaders. Earth Day aims to encourage people across the world to be more environmentally friendly every year on April 22.

 But why do we celebrate Earth Day? And how is it observed by people globally?

 This might mean increasing the amount they recycle, volunteering for a local green project or installing solar panels at their home. The very first event for Earth Day, which was held in America nearly five decades ago following a devastating oil spill, is credited as the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Since its launch, Earth Day has been supported by an array of famous faces, including Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Emma Watson. Now it is coordinated globally by the non-profit Earth Day Network, which describes it as ‘the largest secular holiday in the world’. The day has its own flag, which was created by US peace activist John McConnell and, perhaps unsurprisingly, features a picture of the world on it. It also has its own anthems – one of which is performed to the tune of Beethoven’s Ode To Joy, but with lyrics about protecting the planet. For details of events in your area, visit www.earthday.org .

As well as all these festivities on April 22, at least 130 countries are set to sign the Paris Agreement on climate change.The historic agreement, which was adopted by consensus in the French capital in December, will be deposited at the United Nations in New York in a bid to get other countries to sign up to it. It will be open for signature for one year from Earth Day so let’s get signing!

According to the European Commission, the agreement ‘sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2C’. It is scheduled to come into force in 2020. After the deal was adopted in Paris on December 12, 2015, former deputy prime minister John Prescott referred to it as ‘an historic moment for our planet’. Both China and the United States - the world’s top carbon dioxide emitters – have promised to sign the agreement at the upcoming UN ceremony on Earth Day. French President Francois Hollande is also due to sign it. However, signing is only one step in a tortuous UN process for the deal to come into force. The process requires formal approval by at least 55 nations representing 55 per cent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

 Here are six ways to mark Earth Day yourself:

 •Grow your own food (or buy locally-grown produce)

 •Go paperless

 •Plant a tree

 •Stop drinking bottled water

 •Start carpooling (or take up cycling)

 •Invest in a solar-powered phone charger