On April 22 every year, Earth Day is observed. This is a global activity promoting environmental protection. The earliest Earth Day event was an environmental movement that emerged on the American campuses in the 1970s. In 1990, this activity extended from the United States to other parts of the world, becoming an environmentalist festival and a publicity day for environmental protection. On this day, people of different nationalities promote and practice the concept of environmental protection in different ways. Interestingly, initially the Earth Day was chosen to be on the day of the spring equinox. This is the day where day and night are of equal length, while the sun simultaneously shines on the South Pole and North Pole. This represents the equality of the world, and symbolizes that humans should abandon seeking differences between each other; instead, everyone should live in harmony.

Contrary to what the Earth Day initially aimed for; our world is not exactly that peaceful. News of disputes and conflicts do not seem to have an end; the same is true for the environmental issues too. The United States accuses China of serious environmental problems and China responds by saying that the United States is the one that is unfriendly to the environment. But in a serious comparison, China can perhaps be described as being more constructively disruptive to the environment, while the United States' disruption to the environment is more consumer based. This definition is closely related to the development stage of the two countries. China is a producer-based society, while the United States is a consumer society. As long as humans continue to exist, any country would cause consumptions to the Earth.

The United States is the world's center of power. Its population is only 5% of the world but consumes 24% of the world's energy. The average energy consumed by each American is equivalent to 2 Japanese, 6 Mexicans, 13 Chinese, 128 Bangladeshi, 307 Tanzanians and 370 Ethiopians. Furthermore, by 2050, the U.S. population is expected to increase by 130 million.

The Americans have picky eating habits, yet at the same time they are gluttonous. The country consumes 815 billion calories a day in eating and drinking, around 200 billion calories would need to be burned off in the gym, else they would become abdominal fat. The extra food consumed are enough to feed 80 million people. Americans not only eat more, but also waste more; they can waste up to 200,000 tons of food every day. When each American is at the age of 75, they averagely produced 52 tons of garbage.

The important sign of prosperity is the consumption of water resources. Every American consumes an average of 159 gallons (1 gallon = 4 liters) of water a day, while more than half of the world's people use less than 25 gallons a day. Within 200 years, 50% of the wetlands in the United States, including 90% of the northwest primeval forest have all but disappeared because of human activities. 50% of the cultivated corn and 95% of the oats are used as animal feed. 56% of the cattle is used for planting agricultural. Every day about 9 square miles is used to be developed as agricultural land. To satisfy Americans' shopping desires, the number of malls already exceeds that of schools.

At the same time, over the past 25 years, more than 250 million people in the world have died of hunger-related diseases. This is equivalent to 10 million deaths each year. There are 800-100 million people in the world who cannot maintain a normal life because they do not have enough food. Today's African food production is 27% lower than in 1964. Every year, 25 million people in developing countries around the world are poisoned by pesticides, and among them 20,000 are killed.

If environmental and resource protection are to be conscious actions taken by each of us, then we must work to restrain consumption, make personal sacrifices and be willing to change our existing way of life in order to form a new culture in the society. Only then we can drive more people to make real contributions in changing and improving the world. Otherwise, our celebration of Earth Day is merely self-satisfaction at best.

Final analysis conclusion:

The Chinese people's old tradition of diligence and saving to prevent wastage is crucial in the context of environmental protection. Such practice is what the United States needs to achieve Earth Day's objective.