Every year on April 22^nd, more than one billion people around the world celebrate Earth Day, the world’s largest secular civic event dedicated to environmental protection. This year, it is observed under the slogan “Our Power, Our Planet,” which emphasizes that environmental progress does not occur spontaneously, but through collective action and individual responsibility.

The establishment of Earth Day

Long before ecology became a subject of law and public policy, industrial development in the United States was marked by uncontrolled industrialization, with no serious legal or social response to its consequences for human health and the environment.

1962 represented a turning point, when Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring became a global bestseller and, for the first time on a mass scale, drew public attention to the link between pollution, nature, and human health, reshaping the way the environment was perceived.

A few years later, under the influence of student protests and growing environmental awareness, Senator Gaylord Nelson initiated the idea of a mass mobilization against pollution. In 1970, this led to approximately 10% of the United States population (around 20 million people) taking to the streets, parks, and public spaces to protest the consequences of industrial development, thereby transforming environmental protection into a broad social and political movement for the first time.

By the end of the same year, this pressure resulted in the establishment of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the adoption of key environmental statutes, including the Clean Air Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the Environmental Education Act, followed shortly thereafter by the Clean Water Act. In this way, Earth Day became a symbol of the beginning of modern environmental law and institutional environmental protection.

At the international level, the 1972 Stockholm Conference adopted the Stockholm Declaration, which defines principles for environmental protection and improvement through international cooperation, alongside the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the creation of World Environment Day.

In 1990, Earth Day became a global event, involving more than 200 million people across 141 countries. This wave of international mobilization laid the groundwork for the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro – one of the first global efforts to place climate change and sustainable development at the center of international policy.

Accordingly, the foundations of modern environmental law were laid as early as the 1970s. Today, more than half a century later, the key question is no longer whether awareness exists, but whether it has resulted in real change.

Where do we stand today?

Even when examining contemporary regulatory frameworks, it is evident that the existence of legal norms does not guarantee their consistent and effective implementation in practice. Thus, the European Union Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) classifies biomass energy as a sustainable source, equating it with solar and wind energy. Although the objective of these regulations is to accelerate the energy transition, their implementation raises complex issues, particularly regarding the preservation of forests as natural carbon sinks and the protection of biodiversity, both in Europe and globally. In addition, sustainability criteria often face limitations in practice due to weaknesses in oversight and inconsistent application, resulting in a gap between normative objectives and actual environmental outcomes.

Despite the development of ESG frameworks and strengthened environmental regulation, the global system is simultaneously facing multi-layered crises. In armed conflicts, the environment becomes a direct victim, as the scale of destruction in war zones, including Gaza, leads to long-term contamination of air, water, and soil, with characteristics of severe and potentially irreversible ecological degradation.

At the same time, the global water crisis is entering a new phase. According to United Nations data, more than half of major lakes have experienced long-term declines in water levels, a significant share of wetlands has been lost since 1970, while the majority of the world’s population lives under conditions of pronounced water insecurity. Although Earth is predominantly covered by water, only about 2.5% is freshwater, and less than 1% of total water resources is directly available for human use, clearly illustrating the structural scarcity of this resource.

This is further compounded by the plastics crisis, which has for decades been underestimated through narratives emphasizing recyclability. Today, microplastics and nanoplastics represent both an environmental and health issue, having been detected in human blood, lungs, and placentas. At the international level, negotiations are ongoing regarding a legally binding global plastics treaty under the auspices of the United Nations, aimed at regulating the entire life cycle of plastics. However, the 2025 negotiations did not result in a final agreement.

At the same time, biodiversity reports indicate that Earth is entering its sixth mass extinction event, with wildlife populations having declined by more than 70% over recent decades.

Nevertheless, despite these trends, significant regulatory progress has been recorded. In the European Union, in line with the European Green Deal, renewable energy sources accounted for nearly half of total electricity generation in 2025, with wind and solar energy surpassing fossil fuels for the first time.

In 2024, the Nature Restoration Law was adopted, requiring the EU Member States to restore significant portions of degraded ecosystems by 2050. At the global level, the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement (BBNJ), also known as the High Seas Treaty, constitutes a legally binding United Nations instrument under the Law of the Sea Convention, governing the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in international waters covering approximately half of the Earth’s surface. The agreement provides for the establishment of marine protected areas, regulation of genetic resources, environmental impact assessments, and mechanisms for technological cooperation.

Across various legal systems, new concepts of nature protection are also emerging, from recognition of the legal personality of rivers in India and Bangladesh to legislative solutions granting legal status to nature in parts of the United States and Africa. In Bolivia, the 2012 Law of Mother Earth established a development model based on harmony with nature and the preservation of its regenerative capacity, while in New Zealand, the Whanganui River and its ecosystem were granted legal personhood under the name Te Awa Tupua, affirming both the legal and cultural relationship with the Māori people. These developments indicate a gradual shift toward a model in which nature acquires its own legal protection and subjectivity.

Key implications

Since the beginning of the modern environmental movement in 1970, environmental law has evolved from a near absence of legal frameworks into a complex system of international treaties and regulations. Nevertheless, contemporary challenges clearly demonstrate that the mere existence of legal norms does not ensure their effective implementation in practice.

Ultimately, although regulatory frameworks are more developed than ever before, they remain insufficient to halt the deepening of global environmental crises. The essence remains unchanged since the early days of the environmental movement: sustainable development implies a way of life in which the needs of present generations do not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. However, contemporary consumption patterns and systemic inertia increasingly raise questions about the world we are leaving behind.

For this reason, environmental protection is no longer solely a political or legal issue, but also a matter of everyday choices, responsibility, and the limits societies are willing to set. Moreover, despite efforts to balance economic development and environmental protection through regulation, a predominant pressure on natural resources and the environment remains evident in practice.

Accordingly, responsibility can no longer be viewed solely as individual or symbolic. It must be systemic, legally grounded, and consistently enforced. Otherwise, Earth Day risks remaining the most prominent annual reminder of a problem.