This year’s plans for massive in-person events have been upended by the coronavirus pandemic but the movement has pivoted to 72-hours of digital action.

Jane Fonda, Joaquin Phoenix and Al Gore are among the stars speaking on the ongoing climate crisis, alongside leading scientists and journalists. 

The theme for this year is climate action, with 2020 seen as a tipping point for action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving the UN goal of keeping global warming below 2C.

Earth Day has now reached its 50th year, and according to the Earth Day Network (EDN) over one billion people in 192 countries are thought to have taken part in last year’s event.

The celebration marks the anniversary of the birth of the environmental movement in 1970.

Modern environmentalism is largely credited as starting with the publication of Rachel Carson’s bestselling book Silent Spring – documented the effects of the indiscriminate use of pesticides – in 1962.

The world must "show the same determination and unity" against the accelerating problem of climate change as against coronavirus, UN experts have urged.

A report from the World Meteorological Organisation released to mark the 50th anniversary of the annual Earth Day event, confirms the past five years have been the hottest on record globally.

WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas said: "Whilst Covid-19 has caused a severe international health and economic crisis, failure to tackle climate change may threaten human wellbeing, ecosystems and economies for centuries.

"We need to flatten both the pandemic and climate change curves."

The first Earth Day came about after Senator Gaylord Nelson witnessed the impact of an oil spill in Santa Barbara, California in 1969 and wanted to harness the energy of the youth-driven, anti-Vietnam War movement into environmental action.

From student 'teach-ins' in the Seventies, the movement now involves up to a billion people around the world demanding environmental action 

The Independent's climate correspondent Louise Boyle takes a look back at Earth Day over half a century: 
 

The UN’s secretary general has urged nations to solve the climate crisis in unison once they emerge from the damages caused by coronavirus. 

Antonio Guterres said that while the impact of the virus on global society had been “immediate and dreadful”, there was "another, even deeper emergency - the planet's unfolding environmental crisis".

Read Vincent Wood's report here:

Eleven out of the 12 hottest years to date have all occurred since 2000, according to a new report by the European Union’s climate monitoring service.

Last year was the hottest year on record for Europe after scorching heatwaves led to record-breaking temperatures in February, June and July, scientists from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (CS3) said in the annual European State of the Climate report. 

Read more about the report published on Earth Day here:

Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has begun to release a series of orange and pink coloured images of the Earth to encourage people to gain a new view of the world. 

People should stare at the dot in the centre of each image for 10 seconds and then focus on a blank surface where an afterimage will appear. The artist will release a series of these images,  hourly from 10am on Instagram, and hopes to encourage mass participation around the world. 

The campaign asks people to upload these photos on social media to challenge companies to tackle the plastic problem.

In parts of China and regions of Southeast Asia, live animal markets and the wildlife trade continues despite growing international calls for tighter restrictions on “wet” markets and the use of wildlife in traditional medicine.

The novel coronavirus outbreak is believed to have originated at a wildlife market in Wuhan, China and spread to humans due to their close proximity with wild animals.

Pope Francis made an impassioned plea to protect the environment on Earth Day, saying the coronavirus pandemic had shown that some challenges had to be met with a global response.

Francis praised the environmental movement, saying it was necessary for young people to "take to the streets to teach us what is obvious, that is, that there will be no future for us if we destroy the environment that sustains us".

He added that the Earth was not an endless deposit of resources to exploit, saying: "We have sinned against the Earth, against our neighbour and, in the end, against the creator."

The Green Party has said that a “Green New Deal” has to be central to any post-coronavirus recovery package in the UK.

The party wants to see investment in making all homes warmer and more energy efficient, a rapid roll out of renewable energy and major investments in public transport, which it says would create hundreds of thousands of low carbon jobs.

Oxford University has passed a motion requiring its endowment fund to divest from all direct investments in fossil fuel companies, and end future investment in funds that primarily hold stock in fossil fuel companies.

The resolution, which was passed the day before Earth Day, was hailed as an opportunity to allow Oxford University “to act as a world leader on climate conscious investment”.

Amid rapid global warming – with average Arctic temperatures already 2C above what they were in the pre-industrial era – the extent of the sea ice is diminishing ever faster.

Greta Thunberg's Fridays For Future movement posted this fiery public service announcement on Earth Day. It echoed her words at last year's Davos World Economic Forum: "I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is."