Ben Cardin: “I commemorate April 22--Earth Day 2007, a day set aside to celebrate gains we have made in improving the environment and…”

“I commemorate April 22--Earth Day 2007, a day set aside to celebrate gains we have made in improving the environment and to renew our commitment to protect our planet. Earth Day was established by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and was first celebrated in 1970. Senator Nelson firmly believed that education was the key to changing people's attitude about the environment. Since then, the Earth Day celebration has spread throughout the nation and to the rest of the world, with more and more people getting involved in efforts to clean and nurture the environment. Despite Earth Day's popularity and the many programs that were created to improve the health of the planet, our world is still wrought with environmental problems. We still face many pressing issues such as global warming, protecting our coastal waters from over-fishing, and preserving America's most precious resource lands from the Alaskan Tongass Rainforest to the Redrock lands in Utah, to our own Chesapeake Bay. Today, we face a serious and growing threat from global warming.”