04/22/2026
On December 24, 1968, while aboard Apollo 8, NASA astronaut Bill Anders took an incredible photo of our planet as it rose above the lunar horizon. Labeled, "Earthrise," this photo which captured our fragile rock floating through space helped to launch the environmental movement in the United States and beyond. Less than two years later, we would celebrate a new holiday: Earth Day. Every year on April 22nd, we are reminded again of the beauty and the fragility of our natural environs, and how important it is for every living thing on this planet to have the right to thrive.
On February 4, 1990, the Voyager I space probe took another photo of Earth, the "Pale Blue Dot." Even from 3.7 billion miles away, the perspective of our small round portion of the universe gives pause to the way we as a society should be caring for its inhabitants.
At the Center for Earth Jurisprudence, our mission continues to promote the rights of nature in every legal system, that everything that makes up our combined ecosystems will have a voice. One that will stand firm against human-influenced climate change, overdevelopment, and the degradation of our land, air, and water.
Today, the theme for Earth Day 2026 is "Our Power, Our Planet." The call goes beyond waiting on our systems of governance to make hard and critical decisions to foster our environment and instead turns to the people. All of us. We must work together as one world, doing whatever we can, whatever is within our own power, to create change and find ways to ensure a sustainable future for everything that calls this planet home.
And as we continue to reach for the stars, we look at a new photo of our home, this time taken from the Artemis II spacecraft, and remember what it means to only have one world, and that we should be doing everything possible to protect it.
Please visit our "Evening Thoughts" page at earthjurist.org for more on this year's theme, and how the history of Earth Day correlates with the evolution of the Rights of Nature movement.
