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‘Mama needs all of our love’: Celebrities commemorate Earth Day with tree hugs and calls for green energy

By Emma Colton

Celebrities issued messages of support for Earth Day, with many including pictures of themselves hugging trees and advocating for green energy policies.

Wednesday marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, which was founded in 1970 to raise awareness about environmental issues and garnered significant support on college campuses. A half-century later, hundreds of countries around the world celebrate the April 22 holiday annually, and plenty of celebrities took to social media to encourage others to participate in celebrating “our mother” this year.

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Comedian of The Office fame Rainn Wilson wrote on Instagram, “Folks, Earth Day should be 364 days a year (with only one day left over for polluting.) But for today? We celebrate our mother.”

View this post on Instagram

The Big Blue Marble. The most iconic photograph in human history. Taken in 1972 by the Apollo 17 crew with a 70mm Hasselblad camera pointed out the tiny window of the spacecraft. It was the first photograph of the wholly illumined planet earth. You need to be 20,000 miles above earth, with the sun behind you to achieve this image. Today we celebrate Earth Day. We protest. We worry. We mourn. Our Big Blue Marble is in a severe crisis that is man-made. This is irrefutably (despite what some in the anti-science set might say) backed up by research and becomes clearer with every passing year. It has been our rapacious burning of coal and oil (CO2), our decimating of forests and draining of wetlands and our replacing actual jungles with concrete jungles that has brought us to this point. So what do we do? We protest. We worry. We mourn. We pray. AND WE ACT! VOTE for candidates that support science. (The current Environmental Protection Agency has been gutted, protections destroyed, in favor of unchecked corporate pollution.) VOTE for and support candidates that prioritize the health of our one, beautiful, irreplaceable planet over greed. We reduce our carbon footprint. We drive less and bicycle more. We become conscious consumers. We plant trees. We stop eating beef. Like generations of hippies have said, we “reduce, reuse and recycle.” We unrelentingly pressure companies with our dollars and our voices to make cleaner, more environmentally conscious choices. We LOVE OUR PLANET. Deeply. With all of our hearts. When this photograph was released it changed the way we saw ourselves and our planet. It was revolutionary. Look! There’s no borders! There are only swirling clouds and deep blue oceans and forests and deserts and mountains. All inhabited by ONE SPECIES, regardless of our skin color, our beliefs, our histories, our culture or customs. “The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.” – Baha’u’llah Folks, Earth Day should be 364 days a year (with only one day left over for polluting.) But for today? We celebrate our mother.

A post shared by Rainn Wilson (@rainnwilson) on

Other celebrities took part in the day by posting pictures of themselves hugging trees.

Actress and political activist Alyssa Milano released a video tying the coronavirus to Earth Day and climate change.

“We need to hold our leaders accountable,” Milano said. “And we need leaders who understand that the communities most vulnerable to the global COVID-19 pandemic are also the communities most affected by fossil fuel pollution and the climate crisis.”

Others sent short messages on how “Mama needs all of our love” and respect.

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Thank you to our planet. Happy Earth Day!

A post shared by Tracee Ellis Ross (@traceeellisross) on

President Trump also celebrated the day by planting a tree at the White House.

“As more than 180 nations around the world battle the vicious coronavirus, we continue to mourn the precious souls who have been lost — so sadly lost and so unnecessarily lost. It should’ve been stopped, and it should’ve been stopped right where it started. And everyone knows where it started. But in this time of trial, the beauty of springtime fills us with the peace and the hope of renewal,” he said at the ceremony.

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