By Mei Xue1 and Lan Xiaowen2 of Qiantang River Waterkeeper
April 22nd of each year is Earth Day, a festival dedicated to the world’s environmental protection. This internationally recognized day raises the public’s consciousness of existing environmental problems and mobilizes people to participate in the environmental movement. The goal is for people to start to follow a green, low-carbon lifestyle for the health of the planet.
April 23rd of each year is World Reading Day, which encourages people to read and write. This year, Green Zhejiang, the parent organization of Qiantang River Waterkeeper in Zhejiang Province, China honored both days simultaneously by launching an activity about reading for the earth. This activity brought together more than five thousand people from all over the world to read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, perhaps the seminal book that launched the modern environmental movement. The reading began at 12:00 pm on April 22nd and lasted until 12:00 pm on April 23rd (Beijing time). Throughout the 24 hours, people’s love and appreciation for the earth and nature were exemplified in their reading from Carson’s book.
The participants came from diverse fields, including government representatives, TV hosts, university professors, and grade school students. Staff members from Waterkeeper Alliance, of which Qiantang River Waterkeeper is a member and ally in the fight for clean waterways, joined the cause from New York, including Waterkeeper Alliance President Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
In 1962 after finishing Silent Spring, Rachel Carson suffered from a lot of accusations due to what was at the time a controversial stance on the environment. Luckily, she was greatly supported by then-President John F. Kennedy. Fifty years later, his nephew Robert. F. Kennedy, Jr. led the Waterkeeper Alliance headquarters staff in reading in succession chapter 10 of Silent Spring, “Indiscriminately From the Skies”. The chapter begins, “The amount of pesticides sprayed over the fields and forests was initially small, but the scope of the spread from the air has been expanding, and the amount of spray is increasing…”
There were many readers from other countries as well: residents from South Africa, college students from Zambia and foreign students from the United States, Serbia, Italy, Japan and Russia. They read in their native languages, which showed there are no boundaries for environmental protection and no borders for reading.
The warmest picture from the day was that of a mother crouched beside her daughter, turning the pages for her as she read with her pure child’s voice. And the most touching picture, the sign language teacher, Song, in Zhejiang CDPF and the students from Zhejiang Special Education Career Academy read together for the earth. With a smile on their faces, Song and the students gestured synchronously and raised awareness of environmental protection in a special way.
The event brought great attention from various fields of society and caught the attention of major media. But more importantly, it led to more people participating in the environmental activities launched by Green Zhejiang. Together, we experienced the power of the environment by reading, and let us continue to enhance awareness of environmental protection each day!
为地球朗读：唤醒我们内心对自然的爱
梅雪1,蓝肖雯2
每年的4月22日是世界地球日（Earth Day），一个专为世界环境保护而设立的节日，旨在提高民众对于现有环境问题的意识，并动员民众参与到环保运动中，通过绿色低碳生活，改善地球的整体环境。而每年的4月23日为“世界读书日”，旨在推动更多的人去阅读和写作。
2017年，当地球日遇上了读书日，钱塘江护水者所在的组织——绿色浙江发起了为地球朗读的活动，吸引了来自全球各地5000多人共同参与朗读《寂静的春天》一书。这次活动从4月22日中午12:00一直持续到4月23日中午12:00（北京时间），整整24个小时，通过独特的方式唤起人们内心对地球对大自然的热爱与珍惜。
这些参与者中有来自政府的代表们，有来自电视台的主持人们，有来自大学的教授，有来自中小学的学生们，也有像我们全球护水者联盟一样专注于改善环境的国际友人们。
1962年雷切尔·卡森写完《寂静的春天》一书后，饱受攻击，却受到肯尼迪总统的极大支持！50年后，全球护水者联盟董事会主席罗伯特·F·小肯尼迪，带领着联盟总部员工，接力朗读了第十章《无人幸免的天灾》——“在农田和森林上空喷药最初是小范围的，然而这种从空中撒药的范围一直在不断扩大，并且喷药量不断增加……”
除此之外，还有其他国家的朋友们助阵，有来自南非的当地居民，来自赞比亚的大学生，来自美国、塞尔维亚、意大利、日本俄罗斯的留学生，他们纷纷用不同国家的语言表达了对环境保护的支持，环保无界限，朗读无国界。
那一天中，最温暖的画面是一位母亲蹲在女儿的身旁，为女儿翻着书，女儿用稚嫩的童声有感情地朗读着书籍上的文字。最感动的画面是浙江省残联手语老师宋老师带着浙江特殊教育职业学院的学生们一起为地球“朗读”，宋老师和同学们面带笑容，用整齐的手语比划着，用特殊的方式进行“朗读”。宋老师和同学们共同希望着将环保的意识带给更多的人，通过这样的方式告诉一个特殊而友爱的群体。
本次活动受到了社会各界不同领域的人积极参与，并得到了各大媒体的高度重视.更重要的是，还带动了更多人参与绿色浙江推出的环保行动，从阅读中体会环保的力量，用阅读来增强更多人的环保意识！