Earth Day 2008 Events in Washington, D.C

Earth Day will be celebrated in April 2008 at venues across the globe. The anticipation is that there will be over a half billion people from around the world that will observe Earth Day 2008 in some fashion. In Washington, D.C. there will be a celebration at the National Mall on April 20^th which is expected to attract tens of thousands of attendees that might have concerns about climate change or other environmental hazards and want to demonstrate their support for environmental causes.

The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970 to promote environmental citizenship and has grown to be recognized as an annual event throughout the world. The Earth Day Network cites their mission as "to grow and diversify the environmental movement worldwide and to mobilize it as the most effective vehicle for promoting a healthy, sustainable planet. We pursue our mission through education, politics, events and consumer activism."

Earth Day activities in Washington, D.C. will include exhibits, displays and live entertainment. Two groups that are scheduled to appear on the National Mall for Earth Day include Toots and the Maytals and Warren Haynes.

Toots and the Maytals is a reggae and R & B group that has garnered significant fame from around the world since their inception in the early 1960's. They are often credited with coining the term "reggae". In 2005, the band won a Grammy for Best Reggae Album for "True Love".This album was recorded with musicians Willie Nelson, Keith Richards and others.

Warren Haynes is a renown guitar player that has been ranked as the 23^rd greatest guitar player of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. Haynes is a seven-time Grammy nominee.

Their appearance at the National Mall is expected to attract a huge audience as these two well known musical artists have a wide following and their performances promise to be entertaining at what normally is a beautiful spring day in Washington.

Obviously, the Earth Day organizers for this event hope to attract continued support for their Call for Climate, which is their global warming action theme. In consonance with these activities they are calling on people in the United States who have concerns about climate change to contact their elected representatives. On April 22^nd they are asking people to call their US Congressman and their hope is to generate over 1,000,000 calls on that date.

The Earth Day Network also ranks 72 US cities on their environmental performance and Washington, D.C. scores 45 out of the 72. In case you're interested Fargo, N.D is first.