World Health Day 2016: April 7
WHO has marked its annual World Health Day 2016 (7 April), which celebrates the Organization’s founding in 1948, by issuing a call for action on diabetes. At present 422 million people in the world have diabetes. That is ‘1 person in 11’. Key actions recommended by WHO include ‘to eat healthily, be physically active, avoid excessive weight gain, check blood glucose and follow medical advice’.
Earth Day 2016: April 22
Read the whole article at http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/earth-day
Founded in 1970 as a day of education about environmental issues, Earth Day is now a globally celebrated holiday that is sometimes extended into Earth Week, a full seven days of events focused on green awareness. The brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson and inspired by the antiwar protests of the late 1960s, Earth Day was originally aimed at creating a mass environmental movement. It began as a “national teach-in on the environment” and was held on April 22 to maximize the number of students that could be reached on university campuses. By raising public awareness of air and water pollution, Nelson hoped to bring environmental causes into the national spotlight.
Since 1970, Earth Day celebrations have grown. In 1990, Earth Day went global, with 200 million people in over 140 nations participating, according to the Earth Day Network (EDN), a nonprofit organization that coordinates Earth Day activities. In 2000, Earth Day focused on clean energy and involved hundreds of millions of people in 184 countries and 5,000 environmental groups, according to EDN. Activities ranged from a traveling, talking drum chain in Gabon, Africa, to a gathering of hundreds of thousands of people at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Today, the Earth Day Network collaborates with more than 17,000 partners and organizations in 174 countries. According to EDN, more than 1 billion people are involved in Earth Day activities, making it “the largest secular civic event in the world.”
This year’s theme for international earth day is “Trees for the Earth”.The goal of planting 7.8 billion trees was initiated supporting the theme .These initiatives are believed to result in a significant and measurable impact on the Earth and will serve as the foundation of a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable planet for all. Its mission is to broaden and diversify the environmental movement worldwide and to mobilize it as the most effective vehicle to build a healthy, sustainable environment, address climate change, and protect the Earth for future generations.
