focus on climate change

Earth Day 2007

"Earthrise", as captured by Apollo 8 astronauts on Christmas Eve 1968

Environmental Vision and Progress: Letter from Ambassador Graber

"April 22 is Earth Day and I would like to take this opportunity to stress that the United States is firmly committed to taking action on climate change, at home and abroad.
... As Adam Smith made clear, capitalism has no rival in its ability to provide us with dinner, and there is no more powerful force around that can bring us a cleaner environment.
It will take all of us working together—the governments, the market, civil society—to break the link between economic activity and greenhouse gas emissions.  We are already well on our way." (read the whole article)

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What is Earth Day?

 

Earth Day, April 22, is the annual celebration of the environment and a time to assess the work still needed to protect the natural gifts of our planet. Earth Day has no central organizing force behind it though several nongovernmental organizations work to keep track of the thousands of local events in schools and parks that mark the day. Earth Day is observed around the world, although nowhere is it a national holiday. In the United States, it affirms that environmental awareness is part of the country's consciousness and that the idea of protecting the environment - once the province of a few conservationists - has moved from the extreme to the mainstream of American thought.

To read an entire article by USINFO on the origins and evolution of Earth Day, please see here.

 

 

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Earth Day feature on USINFO

The Department of State public internet portal has prepared a special feature page dedicated to Earth Day.

To visit it, please see here.