Since 1970, the world has commemorated April 22 as Earth Day. The 1969 Santa Barbara, California, oil spill led to a massive environmental disaster. On the first anniversary, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson led a grassroots movement to convince the U.S. government that the planet was in danger and that environmental reforms were needed. To put the issue of the environment on the national agenda, April 22, 1970, was celebrated as Earth Day, with millions of Americans participating in rallies across the country. Although the idea for Earth Day originated in the U.S., in 1990 it went global and is celebrated by billions of people around the world every year. Earth Day has become arguably the largest secular event in the world. This year’s Earth Day theme is “Invest in Our Planet,” specifically to highlight the effects of climate change and efforts to mitigate it. The pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and several proxy wars in various parts of the world have diverted attention from the dangers of climate change. Just because climate change does not dominate global security and political discourse, its challenges to the health and well-being of the planet and human civilization have not disappeared. A grim picture of droughts, floods, and heatwaves. The physical and socio-economic impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly devastating without sustained, robust, and proactive action. The World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) annual report, “The State of the Global Climate 2022,” released the day before Earth Day 2023, paints a very grim picture of droughts, floods, and heatwaves affecting societies around the world, in addition to costing billions of dollars. Melting ice and rising sea levels are also exacerbating the problem. Despite more than 190 countries celebrating Earth Day for more than half a century, the health of the planet is alarming. The accumulation of the three leading greenhouse gases reached record levels in 2021 and continued to increase in 2022. Methane is the most dangerous greenhouse gas because it traps heat 25 times more than carbon dioxide, and its annual increase from 2020 to 2021 was the largest on record. The planet is also warming as greenhouse gas concentrations increase. The WMO report says the average global temperature in 2022 was 1.15 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 average, and the past eight years have been the eight warmest years since 1850.  (Ashok Swain, special to Gulf News)