NASA launches campaign allowing people to adopt a piece of the earth

In the lead up to Earth Day celebrations on April 22, this month NASA launched a campaign that allows members of the public to adopt patches of the earth. The initiative titled “Adopt the Planet” has earmarked 64,000 pieces to be assigned randomly to those who sign on.

LINK: https://climate.nasa.gov/adopt-the-planet/#/

Signing up for it generates an e-certificate in the name of the person and details from NASA’s vaults including satellite imagery of the piece of land or sea that they have “adopted.”

There is no legal entitlement or any strings attached to the adoption. In fact, once all the 64,000 patches are taken, the system reassigns them to new participants.

Read more: Nasa discovers 7 Earth-like planets orbiting a nearby star, could hold life

The day was instituted to mark the birth of the modern environmental movement in the west, particularly U.S. where the first Environment Day was celebrated with much fanfare in 1970. It was an American Senator, Gaylord Nelson, who initiated the first celebrations of the day.

The Earth Day Network is headquartered in Kolkata in India.

Read more: Mars has metal in atmosphere, can reveal previously invisible activity, says NASA

The theme of this year’s Earth Day is Environmental and Climate Literacy and this is what the portal does: spread awareness is tiny packages so the public can see the larger picture.

First Published: Apr 11, 2017 18:30 IST