April 22 is celebrated internationally as Mother Earth Day so as to emphasis the importance of the earth and its environment and highlight the challenges it is facing by the growing population, pollution and degradation.
The United Nations General Assembly, recognizing that Mother Earth is a common expression for the planet earth in a number of countries and regions, reflecting the interdependence that exists among human beings, other living species and the planet we all inhabit, and noting that Earth Day is observed each year in many countries, decided to reserve April 22 as International Mother Earth Day in 2009, with resolution A/RES/63/278.
However, the Earth Day was first celebrated in the United States in 1970 and it is organized by the Earth Day Network. Its mission is to extend and diversify the environmental movement worldwide and to activate it as the most effective vehicle to build a healthy, sustainable environment, address climate change, and protect the Earth for future generations. With this year's theme, looking forward to its 50th anniversary, it sets the goal of planting 7.8 billion trees over the next five years.
Trees are very much helpful for human beings in so many ways. They are also essential to keep our environment stable and fresh. Different researches show that they are helpful in absorbing excess and harmful CO2 from environment. In one year, an acre of mature trees absorbs the same amount of CO2 produced by driving the average car 26,000 miles. They can absorb odors and pollutant gases (nitrogen oxides, ammonia, sulfur dioxide and ozone) and filter particulates out of the air by trapping them on their leaves and bark. They can help counteract the loss of species, as well as provide increased habitat connectivity between regional forest patches. They are also helpful for the communities in achieving long-term economic and environmental sustainability and providing food, energy and income.
On the Mother Earth Day it will be crucial to understand that our earth’s environment has been experiencing large scale degradation due to addition of excessive pollutants. These pollutants are basically the result of chemicals and products that are being invented and used with a great speed in the modern world. These evils have the ability to disrupt our environment and introduce disorder within the ecosystem which is crucial for the life to exist on earth. It is of vital importance to note that the possibility of life to exist within the known universe is limited to the planet earth alone. The distance of the earth from the sun, its temperature and other physical conditions exist in such an ordered manner that life is guaranteed here. Furthermore, the dependence of living beings on one another, their interactions and their reaction and influence over the environment have certain proportional arrangement, which is termed as eco-system by the scientists. If this eco-system is disturbed in some way or the other, the life is disturbed and the contaminants that are let loose by human beings in the environment has the capacity to disturb it greatly and has the capacity to endanger existence on earth. 
The contaminants basically form pollution, which can influence environment in many different ways. Today, we are standing at a stage where many serious minds think that we have to be solemn about saving our earth from the menace of pollution. There are some important concerns that most of the environmental scientists believe should be pondered upon extensively. The first one is the degradation of natural environment to the extent that can prove lethal for most of human beings. The other concern is regarding the overall warming up of the globe – the global warming.
The need of time is to save the earth by adopting appropriate policies. Any effort in this regard needs to be twofold. Firstly, every individual must feel his/her responsibility towards the earth and must make sure that he/she does not become an irresponsible being and must prove supportive for the environment. Nonetheless, extensive awareness programs in this regard can be really helpful. The Mother Earth Day, April 22, can be used very positively in this regard and much can be taught to the people through different sorts of programs and techniques. Secondly, there have to be efforts on national level as well. The governments in different countries can adopt strict laws regarding the safeguard of the environment and can make sure that different industries and enterprises adopt atmosphere-friendly attitude.
This year, Mother Earth Day also coincides with the signing ceremony for the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which will take place at UN Headquarters in New York. The Agreement was adopted by all 196 Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at COP21 in Paris on December 12, 2015. In the agreement, all countries agreed to attempt for limiting global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius, and given the grave risks, to strive for 1.5 degrees Celsius. The signing ceremony takes place on the first day that the Agreement will be open for signatures, marking the first step toward ensuring that the Agreement enters into legal force as quickly as possible, which is a good sign and may help control the climate change to a certain extent. More actions of this sort are needed immediately to save the Mother Earth from further degradation.