International Mother Earth Day was established in 2009, by the United Nations General Assembly under Resolution A/RES/63/278.

The term Mother Earth is used because it "reflects the interdependence that exists among human beings, other living species and the planet we all inhabit".

Inclusiveness is at the heart of International Mother Earth Day; fostering shared responsibilities to rebuild our troubled relationship with nature is a cause that is uniting people around the world.

"[3] In 1968, Morton Hilbert and the U.S. Public Health Service organized the Human Ecology Symposium, where a conference was held for students to listen to scientists discuss the effects of environmental degradation on human health.

[5] Other efforts such as the Survival Project, one of the earliest educational events for environmental awareness, took place at Northwestern University on January 23, 1970.