In spite of the nay-sayers, the Doubter Debbies of the world who resist the displacement of dirty fuels and who swear that global warming is a myth, the shift towards a green-conscious future cannot be helped. Almost a half a century ago, the peregrination towards Earth Day began as environmental cognizance took hold in the hearts of the public. And although many would argue that Rachel Carson’s famous book, Silent Spring, or the massive Santa Barbara oil Spill of 1969 spawned the likes of this famous day, the truth is that an accumulation of a lot of instances and the determination of one Wisconsin senator all stood on the forefront of actualizing this famous holiday.
The Origins of Earth Day
The Story of Senator Nelson
The first Earth Day was in 1970, yet the road to creating this day of environmental consciousness was the end of the nation-wide eight year journey of Senator Gaylord Nelson.1 Despite obvious signs of degradation, a majority of United States citizens were ignoring or failing to recognize the height of environmental decline. So in 1962, the Wisconsin senator flew to DC and spoke to President John F. Kennedy about how the environment was a non-issue in the political world and suggested that the Commander in Chief take a “conservation tour” to promote awareness. The President agreed with Nelson and in November of 1963, JFK took a five day, eleven state tour to promote the environmental movement. Unfortunately, the tour was not successful. But Nelson would not give up and seeing the many anti-Vietnam War protests, he decided in 1969 to push for a massive grassroots movement to spread awareness about environmental protection. At a conference in Seattle in late 1969, Nelson announced the plan for a massive demonstration in the upcoming Spring for citizens to voice their concerns about their disappearing ecosystems. After overwhelming interest and profitable media coverage, the planned environmental demonstration became too much for Nelson to handle. On April 22, 1970, 20 million protestors marched to voice their concerns for their habitats. The positive response prompted the government to keep it on its national calendars as a day to commemorate the earth.
After the first Earth Day, President Richard Nixon knew that the American people needed assurance the Federal Government would take these public demonstrations to heart. A few months later, Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency.2
Events Prompting E-Day
Without a doubt, Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was an enormous influence on the beginning of Nelson’s quest. Carson, an aquatic biologist and zoology professor, knew as early as 1945 that the pesticide DDT as well as other harmful chemicals were incredibly toxic but the government was allowing them to be used in ecosystems and in agriculture regardless.3 Despite numerous personal threats, Silent Spring was published in 1962 and propelled society’s awareness to a new level. Carson is often credited as being the mother of the environmental movement.
In 1964, Congress passed the Wilderness Act, legislation that conserved nearly 7 million acres of US wildlands in order to keep nature as is, preserving it for mankind to see and enjoy, but never to alter.4
Adjacent to the species-unique Channel Islands, Santa Barbara, California is one of those towns that tourists love to visit but few can afford to live. In 1969, oil rigs off its pristine coast let loose 200,000 gallons of crude oil into the seawater, killing migrating grey whales, dolphins, and seabirds in the thousands.5 It took the oil workers over a week and a half just to plug up the leak. A friend of mine, who is a local reporter, told me that the oil’s impact was so severe that waves crashing on the shore made no sound.6
Although these are just three occurrences, all were elephantine in their own ways and all helped to quickly push Earth Day into a reality.
Earth Day, Today
The marchers have already taken to the streets but the fights are still being fought. As “green” has muscled itself into mainstream culture, there is only so much left to be said and much more for the leaders of the world to do. Earth day in the past few years has felt more like an annual check up than a day of protest. The government has been given the task to keep the environment protected and in good condition, just like it has to do for social and economic programs. Global warming, the hot issue of the late 1990s and early 2000s is simply not going away. Accelerated by Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, the The Green Belt Movement , the green movement has a permanent and unwavering foothold in society. And it probably helps that green is the popular thing to do. In 2007, Gore brought “Live Earth” to Washington D.C., a concert jam-packed with high ranking artists—including Madonna and Garth Brooks—that lasted 24 hours and was celebrated on every continent.7 The idea was not only to listen to sweet music but was to increase awareness of the environment in a super hip way.
Beginning in 2007 in Australia, and scheduled worldwide in March 2008, the world hosted “Earth Hour” at 8:30pm local time.8 The idea was to have everyone in the world turn off their lights for one hour. Even Time Square sat dark for those 60 minutes.
Earth Day 2009
This year’s E-Day will mark the start of the Green Generation Campaign, a two year push to get anyone and everyone to think about environmental sustainably in their personal and business lives. The goal is to have 2010, the fortieth anniversary of Earth Day, be a pivotal point in the green movement.9 Also scheduled in many large cities around the U.S. is the Green Apple Festival, an event lasting three days (April 19-22) that features a city-wide volunteer spree10 and ends with a free concert for all who participated. To see the list of performer’s for your town’s concert go to bumpershine.com.
Although 2008 had some rockin’ green fun, including a Green Apple Festival, let’s do our best to make Earth Day 2009 one year closer to a sustainable future.
For full coverage of Earth Day events, see the Earth Day official website at earthday.org or at epa.gov/earthday.
