October 15, 2007 was the first World Blog Action Day where bloggers around the world blog on environment and environmental issues. The choice of topic is what led to a sea of activity in the blog world.

This unique initiative is supported by the United Nations Environment Programme: “UNEP welcomes the simple yet powerful concept of Blog Action Day and calls on bloggers around world to participate”. European Union’s Commissioner for Environment, Stavros Dimas held a special live internet chat on the same day and took questions and viewpoints of a broad range of people. Companies like Google, Yahoo, AOL, Opera, eBay etc. participated as well. Denizens of the blogosphere have also played a crucial role in coordinating efforts to persuade the online community to write on environment for a given day.

Indeed this unique day demonstrates power of an idea and the speed at which something can spread across the globe by using technology. The approach is to reach out to as many people as possible and focus discussion on a particular topic like environment. It is an initiative of Collis Ta’eed, his wife Cyan and a blogger Leo Babauta. “The world doesn’t change in huge leaps, it changes in small increments. We hope that Blog Action Day will be one more drop in the tide of change”, Ta’eed wrote on his blog.

The reality is that the impact was actually significant. There were some 20,603 Blogs that participated, 23,327 Blog Posts were made and some 14, 631, 038 RSS readers. Interestingly RSS readers are perhaps only 50% of the readers of a blog.

It is indeed thrilling to see so many people coming together to support the cause of environment. People have been posting diverse articles from debates on issues like climate change, air pollution to simple tips that individuals can take at their own end to reduce their environmental impact on the planet. The idea has led to unite blog community around the world and hence widened the reach of audience to create awareness on environment and environmental issues.