Earth Day 2024: Google Doodle Shares Planet’s Natural Beauty With A Special Message

It's Earth Day today, and Google Doodle is celebrating with an aerial view of the planet’s rich biodiversity and rare natural landscapes worldwide. The image underscores the most important responsibility we all have --protecting nature's bounties for future generations.

This year, the theme of the Earth Day 2024  is 'Planet vs. Plastics'.

In a unique commemoration of Earth Day, the Google Doodle website says each of the letters showcases some of the places across the globe where people, communities and governments work every day to help protect the planet’s natural beauty, biodiversity and resources. "These examples offer the promise of hope and optimism, but also remind us that there's much more to do to address the climate crisis and biodiversity loss," the website stated.

For instance, the ‘G’ in Google represents the Turks and Caicos Islands. These islands aim to overcome existing environmental challenges and provide safe haven for endangered species like the Turks and Caicos Islands rock iguana, besides guarding other natural resources and reefs. 

The letter ‘O’ marks the Scorpion Reef National Park, Mexico, which is popularly called Arrecife de Alacranes. This is a UNESCO biosphere reserve that aims to protect several endangered species of birds and turtles. As the largest reef in the southern Gulf of Mexico, the marine protected area is considered to be a refuge for complex coral. 

The alphabet ‘O’ stands for the Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland. This UNESCO World Heritage Site was established in 2008. The heritage site’s primary focus is to protect the ecosystem from potential threats within and around Europe’s largest glacier. One can visualise the rare blend of volcanoes and glacial ice in the form of flora and landscape. 

The letter ‘G’ is for Jaú National Park in Brazil. It is considered the heart of the Amazon rainforest and takes initiatives to protect rare species of the margay, jaguar, giant otter, and the Amazonian manatee.

The alphabet ‘L’ stands for Great Green Wall in Nigeria. This is an African Union-led initiative that aims to work on lands that have experienced the negative impacts of desertification around Africa. The management concentrates on planting trees, and other vegetation along with several sustainable land management practices. This gives a boost to economic opportunities and ensures food security, and climate resilience for the locals. 

The letter ‘E’ in Google represents the Pilbara Islands Nature Reserves in Australia. This is one of the 20 nature reserves in the Australian continent that protect fragile ecosystems, rare natural habitats, and threatened species of marine turtles, shorebirds, and seabirds.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that declared April 22 as International Mother Earth Day in 2009.