Today is Earth Day, a global holiday to celebrate the wonder of life on our planet, a chance to do something positive about the place we call home.

"None of us can do all things that will save the planet," said writer Paula Danziger. "But each of us can do some of them, and all of that will add up."

With the message, "Give Earth A Chance," the first Earth Day proclamation was made in 1970 in San Francisco, the City of St. Francis of Assisi, who is the patron saint of ecology. An estimated 20 million Americans participated in the public demonstration to honor and save the planet.

"The people heard the cry of the Earth," said activist Denis Hayes. "and came to heal her."

"Earth Day celebrates the deep-seated and persistent desire of populations around the globe for peace and harmony, which have been disrupted over the years by misguided leaders but never by the people themselves," explained public opinion expert George Gallup, Jr.

To make a difference, folks participate in highway cleanups and recycle aluminum cans, plastic bottles, and newspapers. Little things matter--turning off a light, joining a car pool, or planting a tree.

"When we try to pick out anything by itself," said naturalist John Muir, "we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."

The greatest gift we can give future generations is air that's clean to breathe, water that's safe to drink, and a living environment that celebrates the wonders of Nature. In all things of Nature, there is something truly marvelous. Do something today (and every day) to honor the earth!

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot," wrote Dr. Seuss in The Lorax (1971), "nothing is going to get better. It's not."

More NATURE Quotations

Waste not, want not! Celebrate Earth Day!