Google Doodles Earth Day April 2016

What is Earth Day 2016? Everything you need to know about the environmental event

Google Doodles Earth Day April 2016. With just two days to go until Earth Day 2016, it's the perfect time to start thinking about the planet we live on - and how to save it.

Every year, more than one billion people across the world mark the event by showing support for environmental protection.

Festivals, rallies and outdoor events are held in nearly 200 countries - often, with the support of A-list celebrities and political leaders.

But why do we celebrate Earth Day? And how is it observed by people globally?

Here, we provide a guide to the event, which takes place on April 22 each year.

What is Earth Day?

Celebrated every year on April 22, Earth Day aims to encourage people across the world to be more environmentally friendly.

This might mean increasing the amount they recycle, volunteering for a local green project or installing solar panels at their home.

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The very first event for Earth Day, which was held in America nearly five decades ago following a devastating oil spill, is credited as the beginning of the modern environmental movement.

Since its launch, Earth Day has been supported by an array of famous faces, including Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Emma Watson.

Now it is coordinated globally by the non-profit Earth Day Network, which describes it as ‘the largest secular holiday in the world’.

Each year, festivals, parades and rallies are held in at least 192 countries to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

The day has its own flag, which was created by US peace activist John McConnell and, perhaps unsurprisingly, features a picture of the world on it.

It also has its own anthems – one of which is performed to the tune of Beethoven’s Ode To Joy, but with lyrics about protecting the planet.

This year, more than one billion people are expected to celebrate Earth Day.

What is the Paris Agreement?

On April 22, at least 130 countries are set to sign the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The historic agreement, which was adopted by consensus in the French capital in December, will be deposited at the United Nations in New York in a bid to get other countries to sign up to it.

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It will be open for signature for one year from Earth Day.

According to the European Commission, the agreement ‘sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2C’.

It is scheduled to come into force in 2020.

After the deal was adopted in Paris on December 12, 2015, former deputy prime minister John Prescott referred to it as ‘an historic moment for our planet’.

Both China and the United States - the world’s top carbon dioxide emitters – have promised to sign the agreement at the upcoming UN ceremony on Earth Day.

French President Francois Hollande is also due to sign it.

However, signing is only one step in a tortuous UN process for the deal to come into force.

The process requires formal approval by at least 55 nations representing 55 per cent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

In many countries, that needs a parliamentary vote.

Where is Earth Day celebrated?

All across the Earth, of course!

The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970, in America.

It was founded by former US senator Gaylord Nelson after he saw the enormous 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, California.

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To mark the landmark occasion, a staggering 20million people took part in rallies across the US.

In 1990, the event went global, with 200million people in 141 countries celebrating it, according to the Earth Day Network.

More than two decades on, at least 192 countries mark Earth Day every year, including Britain, Canada, Ukraine, Spain, and the Philippines.

Some communities even celebrate Earth Week – an entire seven days of activities and rallies focused on the world’s environmental problems.

How should I celebrate?

Here are six ways to mark Earth Day:

• Grow your own food (or buy locally-grown produce)
• Go paperless
• Plant a tree
• Stop drinking bottled water
• Start carpooling (or take up cycling)
• Invest in a solar-powered phone charger

When is Earth Day?

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 every year.