Tomorrow is all about the earth.

Earth Day was started by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970 after he witnessed a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, Calif. the year prior.

Inspired by the power of people he saw in action during student protests against the Vietnam War, Nelson went to work gathering information, resources and people to push the environment to the top of the political agenda in the U.S.

With a staff of 85 people behind him, Nelson led the first wave of Earth Day events across America with more than 20 million people showing their support and rallying in massive demonstrations to raise the profile of air and water pollution.

These events helped to re-shape the thinking around environmental issues and turned them into political ones.

“Environmental issues” is, of course, a big umbrella with a huge array of subjects under it.

In the 1970s, people took on anything and everything they wanted to, from power plants to factories to dumps to pesticides to habitat loss.

In 1990, Earth Day went global.

This was right around the time the Exxon Valdez oil spill, environmental contamination from the Chernobyl disaster and deforestation in the Amazon were making headlines worldwide.

Two years later, the United Nations held its first Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero.

These days, environmental topics are more prominent than ever.

Air quality, water preservation, pesticide use and species loss are all on today’s political agenda, joined, of course, by a litany of other issues, including one very prominent one here in Merritt’s collective backyard.

The theme of Earth Day this year is “It’s our turn to lead.”

How appropriate as communities across the country — including Merritt — join together to support the David Suzuki Foundation Blue Dot Movement.

However, the message every year is ultimately the same: make every day Earth Day.

Even small acts of environmental responsibility every day can add up.

It’s all about harm reduction. You can go as drastic as trying out the 100-mile diet — where you can only eat things grown within 100 miles of you — to keeping it simple and taking your bike to work.

While Earth Day does its part to raise awareness for environmental issues, I’d argue Earth Day is growing because the number of people who are thinking about the environment and its protections is growing.

Environmental issues aren’t just for hippies anymore.