Powerful Pictures Of Earth Being Destroyed

The tradition of honoring our special blueberry on April 22 has been alive since 1970. 

Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin organized the first Earth Day 43 years ago in response to the growing assault on the nation's environment. 

Twenty million Americans participated in the first Earth Day, which helped launch the modern day environmental movement. 

In December 1970, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was created, and for the first time, anti-pollution laws were enacted to control the decline of our country's land, air, and water. 

But there's still work to be done. 

Around the globe, factories continue to spew toxic sludge into vital waterways, earth is ripped up to feed our energy needs, and entire villages are literally being washed away as a warming planet causes ocean levels to rise. 

These images serve as a potent reminder of how easy it is to destroy our precious home, and why we need more holidays like Earth Day. 

A truck is loaded with iron ore at a mine in Western Australia.

Thousands of dead fish pile up at a lagoon in Rio de Janeiro. The fish died after oxygen levels dropped due to pollution.

Laborers work at a site of a rare earth metals mine in China.

An oil-covered brown pelican sits in a pool of oil after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.