"And so it came to pass we initiated the celebration of Earth Day on March 21, 1970. The first Proclamation of Earth Day was by San Francisco, the City of Saint Francis, patron saint of ecology. Designating the First Day of Spring, March 21, 1970 to be Earth Day, this day of nature's equipoise was later sanctioned in a Proclamation signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations where it is observed each year. Earth Day was firmly established for all time on a sound basis as an annual event to deepen reverence and care for life on our planet." John McConnell, Earth Day Founder, http://www.earthsite.org/day.htm.

John McConnell first introduced the idea of a global holiday called Earth Day at a UNESCO Conference on the Environment in 1969, the same year that he designed the Earth Flag and co-founded the Earth Society Foundation with the late world renowned anthropologist, Margaret Mead. UN Secretary-General U Thant supported John McConnell’s global initiative to celebrate this annual spring equinox event. In his statement on 21 March 1971, Secretary-General U Thant said: "May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life."

For the last 34 years, this annual event has been traditionally celebrated with the ringing of Peace Bells at the precise moment that spring begins in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. At this global moment, night and day are equal all over the world, the sun sets at the South Pole and rises at the North Pole and anyone standing on the equator at noon will not cast a shadow. Earth Day is a day of equilibrium when differences are forgotten and nature's renewal is celebrated by all in a simultaneous global ceremony involving distinguished members of the UN community and citizens worldwide.

MAKE EARTH DAY YOUR ANNUAL ANCHORPOINT OF SUSTAINABILITY LEARNING!

Earth Day / Spring Equinox is an omnicultural day of celebration and reverance of life and our common life-system: Earth! It is a perfect annual anchorpoint of positive engagement in your communities, of earth-consciousness and positive community-building. Join in with your school and youth organisations!

PNYV & EARTH DAYS:

Connect to a global generation of young changemakers by gathering, reporting and sending in your community's positive projects for our Earth Day 2006 Special Edition!

The PNYV sections on 'Schools', 'Action' and Playing PNYV to the Fullest' offer a variety of special activities: A youth-lead 'Treasure-Mapping' project is a perfect lead-up to uniting your local positive actors for common Earth Day celebration! Or how about airing a positive news Radio or TV Show on your free community stations?! You can draw on a huge archive of , text, audio and video materials! Visit 'PNYV in Schools' for more information, lesson plans and resources, and contact us for the co-creation of a mind- and heart-expanding Earth Day experience for your schools, youth groups and fellow citizens!

ATTENTION!

PNYV supports the celebration of both Spring Equinoxes: of the Northern Hemisphere on March 20, and of the Southern Hemisphere on September 22 (sometimes, the dates shift to March 21 and September 23)!

EARTH MAGNA CHARTA & 77 THESES

The Earth-Site offers comprehensive information on the idealism that gave birth to Earth Day in 1970, and keeps inspiring people around the world. Earth Day has recently been declared an official day of celebration by the mayors of San Francisco and Berkeley, California.

Michail Gorbatchev signed the Earth Magna Charta in 2000. Earth Day founder John McConnell also composed the 77 Theses as 'Principles and Policies that will foster the peaceful nurture and care of Planet Earth'.

Along with the UN Secretary General U Thant and other world leaders, Robert Muller signed the 1971 UN Earth Day Proclamation designating the March 20-21 equinox to be Earth Day: "Dear John, I have read and reread your 77 Theses. They are wonderful and so much to the point," Robert Muller, Chancellor of the University of Peace, Costa Rica.

Both the Earth Magna Charta and the 77 Theses can be understood as forerunners of global declarations as Agenda21 and the Earth Charter, which have been coining global policies since they appeared in the 1990's.

EARTH DAY 2005

On March 20, co-inciding with Palm Sunday, the UN Peace Bell at UN Headquarters in New York was rung at the same moment as bells have been ringing in many other places in the world, including Vienna (Austria), Vilnius (Lithuania), Beijing (China), Paris (France), Kyoto (Japan) and Berlin. At 7:33 New York Time, or 12.33 pm GMT. See  http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/earthday/peacebell_2004.asp and Wikipedia's information on the Peace Bell at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Peace_Bell

On Monday 21st, Earth Day veterans have met for an international online video meeting in IHTEC's online conference room following the invitation of Julia Morton-Marr, founding president of the International School Peace Gardens program (www.ihtec.org). Part of the meeting was broadcast to schools and sustainability stakeholders via a communal tv station in Santa Clarita, USA. When the clock jumped to March22 in our Berlin PNYV office, we surprised John McConnell with congratulations for his 90th birthday, - he still had some hours to wait on his side of the world.

WEBSITE:

www.earthsite.org.

RELATED SITES:

EARTH SOCIETY FOUNDATION: www.earthsocietyfoundation.org

- Earth day activities at UN Cyber School Bus.

cyberschoolbus.un.org/earthday/peacebell_2004.asp

www.un.org/pubs/cyberschoolbus/untour/subjap.htm

- Earth day activities at European School Net (Spring Day).

futurum2004.eun.org/ww/en/pub/futurum2004/index.htm

Watch a recording of the United Nations Peace Bell ceremony (in Real Player format)

goodnews.lot212.com/data/102714/V-peace%20bell.ram

IMAGES:

Earth Day Stamp, John McConnell: www.earthsite.org

Earth Flags on international space station MIR (russian for 'Peace'), at the North Pole and South Pole:

www.wowzone.com/mir.htm

www.wowzone.com/npole.htm

www.wowzone.com/s-pole.htm

Earth Day Vienna & Berlin:

PNYV Creative Team members ringing the Berlin Peace Bell on Earth Day 2005

Earth Day Vienna: www.dorfwiki.org/wiki.cgi

Earth Day Berlin: Hugo Bandorf, Eric Schneider www.pnyv.org

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