Earth Day 2008 marked in various ways

April 24, 2008 April 22 was Earth Day. It is a tradition started by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson with the first Earth Day in April 1970. Earth Day Canada was started in 1990.

In Central Park, New York, the "Green Apple festival" marked the event. In Buenos Aires an "an entertainment event with an awareness component."

An earth fair was also held in Catalunya, Spain. The earth day website says that "the theme for this year's edition is the Fight Against Genetically Modified Organism which Poison the Planet."

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, also held an event to mark the day. This event is similar to an event last year that marked last year's earth day.

There were also events to mark the day in Caracas, Venezuela. The Earth Day website said "youth groups from Universities will make a vow as Citizens of the World and will launch Beja Contest 2008," in its description of these events.

There were also events in Chicago. According to the Earth Day website, Lincoln Park Zoo hosted some of these events.

Events in Tokyo, Japan also marked the day. The Earth Day website says that the "booth and Event Area within Yoyogi Park" hosted the event.

Other places across the world also marked the day. The Earth day website says that "Earth Day 2008 is expected to be the biggest yet, From Tokyo to Togo, to our flagship event on the National Mall in Washington, DC and 7 other U.S. cities, we will be galvanizing millions of people around the world behind a Call for Climate, our global warming action theme. "

Jim Connaughton, the chairman of Council on Environmental Quality for the US government, described Earth Day and explained how it was founded. Below is his description:

On April 22, 1970, 20 million people across America celebrated the first Earth Day. It was a time when cities were buried under their own smog and polluted rivers caught fire. Now Earth Day is celebrated annually around the globe. Through the combined efforts of the U.S. government, grassroots organizations, and citizens like you, what started as a day of national environmental recognition has evolved into a world-wide campaign to protect our global environment—a campaign that truly is now a part of our daily lives, not just a one day event every year.

Earth Day has become a great tradition in our country. It’s a day that reminds us that we must be good stewards of our natural resources. To the President, Earth Day is a reminder that we can’t take our land and resources for granted. The President and Mrs. Bush believe we have responsibilities to conserve what we have, and work to make it better.

Connaughton also described what George W. Bush is doing to mark the event:

The President is in New Orleans, Louisiana hosting Mexican President Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Harper for the North American Leaders Summit. They took time out their schedule today to join New Orleans Mayor Nagin for a tree planting ceremony to commemorate Earth Day. The President planted a Shumard oak tree as a reminder of our global duty to protect the environment. New Orleans lost about 250,000 trees to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita – about 50,000 of those trees were in public spaces like Lafayette Square. Replanting trees is vital not only to recovery of the city’s character, but also its environment.