TOP TEN Reasons to Think of MOROCCO on Global Earth Day
 WASHINGTON, -USNewswire/ 

Leading up to next week's 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the following are ten good reasons to keep Morocco in mind — and visit online or in person — to mark Global Earth Day.

1) Welcome to Morocco's capital, RABAT, one of six world cities selected by Earth Day as host for major events in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Global Earth Day — along with Tokyo, Kolkata, Buenos Aires, Washington, DC, and New York City.

2) Solar energy from the Sahara desert — unlimited reserves! Morocco has launched a $9 billion project to harness the Sahara sun as renewable solar energy for a green economy, and reduce carbon emissions by 3.7 million tons a year.  Morocco expects renewable energy to supply 42% of its power by 2020.

3) His Majesty King Mohammed VI, one of Green Morocco's strongest advocates, has launched a project to plant a million palm trees by 2015.  He has also directed creation of a national agency for the development and safeguarding of oases zones and Argan trees across Morocco. 

4) On April 24, the Stars come out in RABAT for a Day of Global Celebration. Renowned musician Seal, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and LOST'S Jeff Fahey join Moroccans and international guests at a great festive event in city center for an unforgettable Earth Day.

5) EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, top U.S. environmental official, has praised Morocco as a model for "its commitment to a clean, green economy," adding "Morocco's leadership on the environment and sustainable development offers a great example for how we can spread this idea across the globe." (3/18/10)

6) On April 17-24, leading up to the Day of Global Celebration, RABAT is the site of an unprecedented week of Earth Day events, including environmental awareness workshops, seminars, and presentations on innovative, environmentally friendly technologies.

7) On April 22 — Earth Day — Morocco unveils its groundbreaking "National Charter for the Environment and Sustainable Development," the first of its kind in Africa and the Arab and Muslim world, according to Earth Day Network President Kathleen Rogers.

8) Morocco also launches 10 major new environmental projects.  On Earth Day, ten long-range projects will be inaugurated aimed at protecting the environment, environmental education in schools, environment and rural development, fighting desertification, preserving ecosystems, and treating waste.

9) Nationwide commitment to Green Morocco.  A land of great diversity — from palm-sheltered oases, peaks of the Atlas Mountains, and sands of the Sahara — support for a Green Morocco and the National Environment Charter reflects the will of Moroccans across all regions and sectors of society.

10) RABAT is the closest major Earth Day city to the U.S. and Web-friendly. It has the quickest flights (8 hrs across the Atlantic), fastest Internet connections on the continent, and easy access to Marrakesh, Casablanca, Fez, and Tangiers. 

 All the more reason to join Morocco
in celebrating Earth Day 2010.

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Gaylord Nelson, Earth day founder 

 
Gaylord Nelson, who died on Sunday aged 89, was a Democrat Governor of Wisconsin and later a senator for that state; he made his greatest impact, however, as an early conservationist and as the founder of Earth Day.

Nelson began Earth Day as an environmental demonstration which he had modelled on the protests against the Vietnam War, and designed to be a "teach-in" on conservation issues. But after he floated the idea in a speech in September 1969, he attracted such support that the first Earth Day, held on April 22 the next year, attracted tens of thousands to New York; more than 2,000 universities took part in the occasion.

 
The science behind that fresh seaside smellThirty five years later, Nelson's brainchild is still marked by conservationists around the world, often by planting trees and hosting "clear-ups". Nelson consolidated the success of the first event with the Environmental Education Act, which he proposed that year, and two years later with the National Environmental Education Act.

Gaylord Anton Nelson was born on June 4 1916 at Clear Lake, Wisconsin, a village of 600 souls where his father was the doctor. The family (of Norwegian and Irish stock) was political; a great-grandfather had been a founding organiser of the Republican party, and Gaylord's father Anton was a supporter of Robert La Follette's Progressive party.

Young Gaylord was educated at Clear Lake High School and San Jose State College, California, where he played the trumpet in a dance band and had a summer job as a foreman in a pea-canning factory. After graduating in Economics, he entered the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1939, graduating just before his call up for military service in 1942. He served in the US Army, and was demobbed in the rank of captain in the Quartermaster Corps.

After the war, Nelson returned to his native Polk County and ran unsuccessfully, as a Republican, for a seat on the state assembly. He moved to Madison, set up as a lawyer, and joined the Democrats. He became representative for Dane County in 1948, eventually becoming his party's leader in the state senate.

His committee work there first brought him into contact with conservation issues, though it was his stance on the farm programme which did him most good when he ran for Governor in 1958, overturning the majority of the Republican Vernon W Thomson, and becoming Wisconsin's first Democratic governor for a quarter of a century.

After leaving office in 1962, Nelson ran for the Senate, where he served for nearly 20 years. Here he had the chance to push for legislation backing his environmental principles; President Clinton later hailed him as "grandfather of… the Environmental Protection Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act".

Besides conservation, Nelson was chairman of subcommittees on Social Security, employment and small businesses. After being defeated in 1980, he became a consultant at the Wilderness Society in Washington DC.

Gaylord Nelson was named Conservationist of the Year for 1989, received the Environmental Leadership Award of the United Nations in 1992 and the Presidential Freedom Medal in 1995.

Nelson met his wife Carrie Lee Dobson, whom he married in 1947, during the war, when she was a nurse in the Okinawa campaign. They had two sons and a daughter.

 John Roach for National Geographic News

April 22, 2010

From grassroots beginnings in 1970, Earth Day—which celebrates its 40th anniversary today—has blossomed into a global tradition.

Organizers expect more than a billion to honor Earth Day in 2010—but many will do so with Facebook rather than megaphones.

As part of the Billion Acts of Green, an initiative organized by the Washington, D.C.-based Earth Day Network's Green Generation campaign, more than 30 million people will use social media to encourage green activities. One commenter on the Earth Day Network Web site named "Elroy," for example, plans to "shower with a friend"—presumably to conserve water and electricity.

Kathleen Rogers, president of the Earth Day Network, said that everyone is part of what she calls the green generation, which marks the transition from the industrial revolution to the green revolution. (Test your Earth IQ.)

The campaign aims to make Earth Day's 40th anniversary the moment when the green generation comes together to address pressing environmental concerns, such as the global freshwater crisis and global warming.

"The idea that we can all belong to something is what's exciting people and what's making them want to join," Rogers said.

Why is April 22 Earth Day?

Every day, the saying goes, is Earth Day. But it's popularly celebrated on April 22. Why?

One persistent rumor holds that April 22 was chosen because it's the birthday of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union.

"Lenin's goal was to destroy private property and this goal is obviously shared by environmentalists," the Capitalism Magazine Web site noted in a 2004 article perpetuating the theory.

Rogers, whose Earth Day Network was founded by the original organizers of Earth Day, scoffed at the rumored communist connection.

She said April 22, 1970, was chosen for the first Earth Day in part because it fell on a Wednesday, the best part of the week to encourage a large turnout for the environmental rallies held across the country.

"It worked out perfectly, because everybody was at work and they all left," she said.

In fact, more than 20 million people across the U.S. were estimated to have participated in that first Earth Day.

Earth Day is now celebrated every year by more than a billion people in 180 countries around the world, Rogers said.

Roots of Earth Day

Earth Day's history is rooted in the activist-driven 1960s, when the environment was in visible ruins and people were angry, according to Rogers.

"It wasn't uncommon in some cities during rush hour to be standing on a street corner and not be able to see across the street" because of pollution, she said.

Despite the anger, green issues were absent from the U.S. political agenda. This frustrated U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, whose campaigns for the environment through much of the 1960s had fallen flat.

In 1969 Nelson hit on the idea of an environmental protest modeled after anti-Vietnam War demonstrations called teach-ins.

"It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country," Nelson recounted in an essay shortly before he died in July 2005 at 89.

"The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air—and they did so with spectacular exuberance." (See pictures of quirky Earth Day stunts.)

Nelson recruited activist Denis Hayes to organize the April 22, 1970, Earth Day teach-in, which today is sometimes credited for launching the modern environmental movement.

By the end of 1970, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had been born, and efforts to improve air and water quality were gaining political traction.

"It was truly amazing what happened," Rogers said. "Blocks just tumbled."

Earth Day Evolves

Amy Cassara, a senior associate at the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C., analyzes global environmental trends.

She noted that, since Earth Day started, environmentalism has moved from a fringe issue to a mainstream concern. "As many as 80 percent of Americans describe themselves as environmentalists," Cassara said. (Learn how you can help this Earth Day.)

Environmental issues today, however, are less immediate than dirty air, toxic water, and a hole in the ozone layer, she added.

For example, the impacts of global warming are largely abstract and difficult to explain "without coming off as a doomsday prognosticator," Cassara said.

"As we become more industrialized and our supply chains become less transparent, it can be more difficult to understand the environmental consequences of our actions," she noted.

Earth Day Has Lasting Impact

Earth Day Network is pushing the Earth Day movement from single-day actions—such as park cleanups and tree-planting parties—to long-term commitments.

"Planting a tree, morally and poetically, requires taking care of it for a really long time, not just sticking it in the ground," Earth Day Network's Rogers said.

To help make the transition, the organization is aligned with a hundred thousand schools around the world, integrating projects with an environmental component into the year-round curriculum.

"They announce the results on Earth Day, so Earth Day becomes a moment in time," Rogers said.

The World Resources Institute's Cassara added that her organization uses Earth Day to convene with leaders in the movement and assess progress in their campaigns.

"[Earth Day] doesn't raise awareness among the general public in the same way that it used to. But it still provides a benchmark for reflection among those of us in the environmental community," she said.

What to Do on Earth Day?

Hundreds of events are held each year across the world on and around April 22 to mark Earth Day, Rogers said. (Related: "First Green Supersonic Jet Launches on Earth Day.")

Among the highlights for the 40th anniversary include the first community garbage cleanup in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, which does not have garbage-collection service. Rogers said that event is a stepping-stone in the establishment of an environmental movement in India.

"I think people would be extremely disappointed if it went back to the way it was," she said.

The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, will formally announce a National Charter for Environmental and Sustainable Development on Earth Day 2010.

The novel idea was inspired by the Earth Day movement in the U.S., Rogers noted.

"He's a king that wants to represent the fabulous side of environmental protection," she said. "It's very forward thinking."

Earth Day Network's marquee event in the U.S. is an April 25 star-studded rally in Washington, D.C., calling on the nation's political leaders to combat global warming.

Big-name speakers at the rally include the Reverend Jesse Jackson; film director James Cameron; and a roster of musical guests including Sting, Bob Weir, and Tao Rodríguez-Seeger, grandson of folk singer Pete Seeger, who performed at the first Earth Day teach-in in Washington, D.C.

Anti-Earth Day

Don't expect to find Keith Lockitch, a fellow with the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, California, at any Earth Day rallies. Named for late novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, the institute promotes the "principles of reason, rational self-interest, individual rights, and laissez-faire capitalism to the widest possible audience," according to its Web site.

The institute also opposes Earth Day as a celebration of the anti-capitalist environmental movement, Lockitch said.

"Whenever there is a conflict between protecting nature from any kind of human activity versus pursuing some human value, environmentalists will consistently side with nature," he said.

For example, he said that environmentalists protest the construction of hydroelectric dams because they might affect species habitat—even though industrial society needs electricity to survive.

Instead of celebrating the environmental movement, Lockitch said, "we should have a Be Proud of Being Human Day … not a Feel Guilty for Trampling on Mother Earth Day."

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Blue goes green
Earth Day and Avatar team up to plant great eco ideas
By Norman Wilner
Los Angeles – At a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is holding the global media launch for the home version of Avatar.

Journalists from all over the planet – I checked in alongside people from Milan, Berlin and Tokyo – have flown in to watch James Cameron and producer Jon Landau announce the movie’s Earth Day street date and present selected scenes from their record-setting blockbuster, the better to reassure consumers that the 2-D small-screen experience will be just as spectacular as the IMAX 3-D edition.

It’s a green event, if you look past the carbon footprint of all the air travel. The snacks are organic, and the bar is stocked with cane sodas and iced teas. Even the press notes are being handed out on USB flash drives made from recycled plastic.

Greener still: not only is Avatar coming to Blu-ray and DVD for the 40th annual celebration of Earth Day, but Fox is partnering with the Earth Day Network to plant 1 million trees in 15 countries around the world, including Canada, the U.S., Haiti and Brazil, by the end of 2010.

“There’s an opportunity here for Avatar to be helpful,” Cameron says, “as opposed to things being able to help Avatar.”

The financial success of the film showed Cameron that it was communicating with people around the world.

“But suddenly different groups and causes that are attempting to deal with environmental issues – indigenous rights and so on – have come to us, seeing Avatar as a focusing lens for these issues. The public has connected emotionally with these issues, so Earth Day is the perfect time for us to premiere the discs.”

Sitting down for an interview after the presentation, Kathleen Rogers, president of the Earth Day Network, couldn’t be happier about a tie-in with the biggest movie in history.

“Having James Cameron, 20th Century Fox and Avatar supporting something that’s central to the movie – the idea of the ‘home tree’ – that kinda made sense,” she says.

“Earth Day is about a couple of things,” she explains. “It’s about service to the environment, it’s about political action, it’s about bringing people into the environmental movement, and the 40th anniversary has been a catalyst for many, many things worldwide. In Morocco, for example, the king will be announcing an environmental bill of rights for his country. That’s huge, an enlightened guy like that running the country. They’re building solar. But things like that are happening everywhere, in every country.”

An environment advocate and attorney (she was the former chief wildlife counsel to the National Audubon Society), Rogers says Avatar represents that rare opportunity to leverage a hugely popular cultural event for educational purposes.

“In so many documentaries, there’s no civic action at the end, no call to arms,” she says. “You could watch a show on sharks, and at the end you’re so incredibly sorry for them, realize how much a part they are of our ecosystem and how heavily we’re screwing it up for sport reasons – for pointless reasons – but there’s no way to turn that into civic action. You just go away accepting it and frustrated. You don’t have many avenues.”

The former king of the world also thinks the activist message is getting out.

“Hopefully, kids will relate to the film on that level,” says Cameron.

“The idea [is] that we need to be warriors for our planet or we’re not gonna survive.”

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(AFP) – Apr 4, 2010

RABAT — Rabat will inaugurate 10 major environmental protection projects this month when it becomes one of six world cities to lead celebrations for Earth Day, a Morocco official said Sunday.

The Morocco capital will join Washington, New York, Shanghai, Rome and Mumbai as leading hosts of events on April 17-24 for the 40th anniversary of the event organised by the US-based Earth Day Network.

"To commemorate this day, Rabat will be an example on the world scale by inaugurating 10 long-range projects focused on the protection of the environment in the kingdom," an official told AFP.

The projects will include pushing environmental education in schools and the establishment of a national observatory for environment and rural development, according a statement by Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi.

They will also aim to fight desertification, preserve ecosystems, treat waste and end the use of plastic bags.

The Moroccan capital has more than 260 hectares (642 acres) of green space as well as a green belt covering around 1,063 hectares.

Morocco is the first African, Muslim and Arab nation to commit to holding national events in honour of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22, according to the Network