World Earth Day is celebrated every year as an annual event by the people all across the world on 22nd of April in order to increase the awareness among people about the environment safety as well as to demonstrate the environmental protection measures.
调整语速:
On April 22nd, more than 190 countries, including the United States, celebrate Earth Day. It is a day to reflect on the impact humans have on the earth, and to demonstrate and reaffirm our support for environmental protection.
The first Earth Day was planned as a Teach-in, a day to inform about environmental issues. Earth Day's founder, United States Senator Gaylord Nelson, an environmental activist who was outraged by the lack of political response to gross environmental degradation throughout the country, said that he was “convinced that all we need to do to bring an overwhelming insistence of the new generation that we stem the tide of environmental disaster is to present the facts clearly and dramatically. . . Every university should set aside one day in the school year – the same day across the Nation – for the teach-in."
His plan worked: over 20 million people turned up for Senator Nelson's first Earth Day Teach-in on April 22, 1970. And from then on, the movement grew spontaneously, creating its own momentum with no central organization.
Today, we continue the traditions of that first Earth Day. Because education is the foundation of progress, this year's theme is Environmental and Climate Literacy. Citizens who understand well the importance of these issues, and the impact they have on our lives, can make small changes to minimize their impact on the environment and influence environmental practices within their communities – even influence environmental policy. By choosing to buy environmentally safe products and to do business with environmentally responsible producers and vendors, they can also accelerate green innovations, technologies, and jobs.
今天，我们依然延续着第一个地球日留下的传统。由于教育是进步的源泉，所以今年地球日的主题是环境与气候素养(Environmental and Climate Literacy)。如果市民们十分清楚环境议题的重要性，并且十分清楚环境问题对我们生活的影响，那么他们就能做出很多细小的改变，来将他们对环境的影响最小化，同时还会在他们自己的社群范围内影响其他人与环境的交互——甚至影响环境政策的制定。通过选择购买环保产品并与负责任的环保制造者及经销商合作的方式，他们也可以加速绿色创新、科技和新就业岗位的实现。
On April 22nd, 1970, in his speech on the first Earth Day, Senator Nelson said: “Our goal is an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all human beings and all other creatures. ... Our goal is a decent environment in its deepest and broadest sense.”
1970年4月22日，在第一个世界地球日活动的演说中，盖洛德说，“我们的目标是为人类和其他生物创造健康、高品质、互相尊重的环境……我们的目标是实现一个从任何广度和深度来看都健康的环境。”
Today, these words still resonate as strongly as they did 47 years ago. We are committed to advancing these goals and ideas across the country, and across the globe.
