Earth Day is celebrated every year on April 22nd. Take some time to find out about how one man, who was determined to change the way we treated our planet, didn’t stop until he had made a difference.

In 1963, Senator Gaylord Nelson wasn’t happy with the earth’s condition. He wanted to clean up the planet, solve pollution and environmental problems. A senator is someone US citizens choose to help make laws, so Gaylord had a lot of power. He went to John F. Kennedy, the President at the time, with his concerns. The President agreed that the planet’s environment was a serious issue, so President Kennedy went around the country on a five-day tour to promote the idea of cleaning up the planet. People began making small changes but it wasn’t enough.

A few years later, Senator Nelson decided to put one day aside every year for the cause of saving the planet. On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated. Since then, Earth Day has become an international holiday. People all over the world are doing something to make Earth a cleaner, better place.

A rock band named Dramarama wrote a song about Earth Day in 1993 called What are We Gonna Do. People are paying more and more attention to save the earth.

By becoming the first city in the nation to ban natural gas in new low-rise buildings and homes, Berkeley did something great in mid-July. It signaled the beginning of the end of the natural gas era.

California has set a climate mandate of 100% clean, renewable energy by 2045. It won’t reach that goal unless it gets rid of natural gas. Burning natural gas emits carbon dioxide and other pollutants. In many cities, including Berkeley, buildings are the second leading greenhouse gas-emitting sector, after transportation. Now that regulations aimed at the 2045 mandate are in place for cars, trucks and coal-fired power, natural gas has to be next.

The popular image of gas cooking and heating—clean, cheap and reliable, a “bridge fuel” from coal to renewables—needs to be changed. Natural gas has produced more greenhouse gas emissions overall in the US than coal since 2015. Now natural gas emissions from the state’s 12 million buildings account for 12% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.

What’s more, natural gas is combustible, a common reason for fires and explosions. An underground gas pipe explosion in the Bay Area city in 2010 killed eight people and destroyed or damaged more than 100 homes. Gas leaks can cause not only indoor pollution but also deaths.

The case for making new buildings all-electric is overwhelming. It costs less to set up just one kind of energy—electricity—in new constructions, instead of laying gas pipes too. And the latest technologies work well: Electric heat pumps both cool and heat homes.

At least 50 other California cities will encourage all-electric new constructions in the coming months. They may not ban gas altogether in new constructions, but the aim is the same. The Berkeley measure is the beginning of an equally essential but more difficult task: re-equipping all existing buildings so that they, too, become all-electric.

In the U. S. state of Washington, a road called Interstate 90 cuts through a wild mountainous area to reach the city of Seattle. For the area's many kinds of animals, the busy highway greatly limits their movements. Animals need to move to find food, to find mates and to find new places to live. Crossing I-90 as the road is called is a risky but sometimes necessary act. But soon, animals will have a safer choice.

To help the animals, the state is finishing work on its largest-ever wildlife bridge. The 11-meter-tall, 20-meter-wide bridge begins in the forest. Workers are adding fencing anti-plants to help guide the animals across the bridge. The I-90 bridge is part of a growing number of wildlife crossings across the United States. Some are fences, some are overland bridges, and some are underpasses. They all aim to keep drivers and animals away from each other.

A U.S. Transportation Department study found crashes between animals and humans rose year by year. The accidents made up about 5 percent of all crashes nationally, and cost the economy about $8 billion. Such costs come from car repaid, emergency room visits and removal of the dead animals on roads. Collisions between animals and drivers are rarely deadly to people. But they are often deadly to wildlife. The study also found that 21 endangered or threatened species in the U.S. are affected by vehicle hits.

Patty Garvey Darda of the U. S. Forest Service says the $6-million bridge will one day pay for itself because the highway will not have to be fully or partly closed each time a large animal is struck. “If you shut down Interstate 90, you shut down interstate trade.” she adds.