Earth Day 2010 is tomorrow and the Children’s Museum of Houston is celebrating what we can do to positively impact the environment. Events start Thursday and last all weekend – check out the schedule here.

This year is the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day in 1970, which for the first time brought together activists and citizens concerned about the myriad ecological and environmental issues that were and still are plaguing the planet. Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wisconsin) originally conceived of Earth Day to be an “environmental teach-in” on college campuses nationwide as a result of the outrage he felt due to the slow response by the national government to the 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill.

The first Earth Day was a completely grass-roots effort that quickly grew from an idea to a full-blown movement such that when April 22, 1970 rolled around, more than 20 million Americans peacefully demonstrated their concerns about the negative impacts we were having on our environment and request environmental reform. As a result from the first Earth Day in 1970, a great deal of environmental legislation was passed including the Clean Air Act and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Earth Day 2010 is expected to have more than 500 million participants worldwide in 175 different countries. It is currently run by the Earth Day Network and you can check out their 2010 website here.