'Sanitation is something that is very real,' said Earth Day celebrant in Washington, DC, April 18, 2015

"Sanitation is something that is very real," he said. "I understand and cannot turn a blind eye to what's going on."
 
 





















Above, 4/18/15, "Scenes from the Earth Day concert on the Mall," CRouselle Twitter

Above, 4/18/15, "Crowds here in DC to fight #ClimateChange! (They're just bahind the piles of trash.)-mao #EarthDay #EcoWarrior, The Quotus Twitter

 





Above, 4/18/15, "Trash left over from #EarthDay2015 celebrations and concert at National Mall #ironyatitsfinest," TomHebert96 Twitter

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4/18/15, "Usher, Gwen Stefani, Mary J. Blige headline Earth Day rally, drawing crowd on National Mall," AP, Brett Zongler, via US News

"A daylong Earth Day concert had R&B star Usher dancing on crutches Saturday on the National Mall to rally thousands for political action to confront climate change and poverty.

Usher, Mary J. Blige, Gwen Stefani, Common, Fall Out Boy and Train all performed during the free Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day rally hosted by will.i.am and Soledad O'Brien....

"To end poverty, it starts, in my opinion, with an education about it," Usher told the crowd. "I want you to go and investigate for yourself so that you can really understand what's going on."

The rally was a joint initiative of the Global Poverty Project and Earth Day Network. It coincides with meetings at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Usher joined the poverty project at the White House on Friday for a meeting with officials.

"I felt really good that the issues we are addressing here are on the table," he told The Associated Press. After his performance, Usher said his passion is expanding education to help end poverty. But the impacts of climate change also have severe impacts on the world's poor, he said.

"Global warming is something that obviously will affect all of us. Clean water and sanitation is something that is very real," he said. "I understand and cannot turn a blind eye to what's going on."

For his part, will.i.am played host and said the huge turnout shows people are concerned.... 

The rally also touched on global health and development needs. The U.S. Agency for International Development announced from the stage that it will commit $126 million [US taxpayer dollars] to rebuild West African health care systems that were broken by the Ebola outbreak. The U.S. government already has spent $1.4 billion [US taxpayer dollars] on the crisis to support 10,000 humanitarian responders and to provide equipment, laboratories and training.

While Earth Day is officially on April 22, the Saturday rally asked participants to commit to making environmentally friendly "acts of green." Organizers also asked attendees to sign petitions for a U.N. conference on climate change planned for Paris in December."




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