By the early 1960s Americans were becoming aware of the effects of
pollution on the environment. Rachel Carson’s 1962 bestseller “Silent
Spring” raised the specter of the dangerous effects of pesticides on
America’s countrysides. Later in the decade, a 1969 fire on Cleveland’s
Cuyahoga River shed light on the problem of chemical waste disposal.
Until that time, protecting the planet’s natural resources was not part
of the national political agenda, and the number of activists devoted to
large-scale issues such as industrial pollution was minimal. Factories
pumped pollutants into the air, lakes and rivers with few legal
consequences. Big, gas-guzzling cars were considered a sign of
prosperity. Only a small portion of the American population was familiar
with–let alone practiced–recycling.
Did You Know?
A highlight of the
United Nations' Earth Day celebration in New York City is the ringing of
the Peace Bell, a gift from Japan, at the exact moment of the vernal
equinox. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1962, Senator Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat from Wisconsin,
was determined to convince the federal government that the planet was
at risk. In 1969, Nelson, considered one of the leaders of the modern
environmental movement, developed the idea for Earth Day after being
inspired by the anti-Vietnam War
“teach-ins” that were taking place on college campuses around the
United States. According to Nelson, he envisioned a large-scale,
grassroots environmental demonstration “to shake up the political
establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda.”
Nelson announced the Earth Day concept at a conference in Seattle in
the fall of 1969 and invited the entire nation to get involved. He later
recalled, “The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The
response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters
and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The
American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what
was happening to the land, rivers, lakes and air—and they did so with
spectacular exuberance.” Dennis Hayes, a young activist who had served
as student president at Stanford University, was selected as Earth Day’s
national coordinator, and he worked with an army of student volunteers
and several staff members from Nelson’s Senate office to organize the
project. According to Nelson, “Earth Day worked because of the
spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time
nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of
schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable
thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.”
On April 22, rallies were held in Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and most other American cities, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In New York
City, Mayor John Lindsay closed off a portion of Fifth Avenue to
traffic for several hours and spoke at a rally in Union Square with
actors Paul Newman and Ali McGraw. In Washington,
D.C., thousands of people listened to speeches and performances by
singer Pete Seeger and others, and Congress went into recess so its
members could speak to their constituents at Earth Day events.
The first Earth Day was effective at raising awareness about
environmental issues and transforming public attitudes. According to the
Environmental Protection Agency, “Public opinion polls indicate that a
permanent change in national priorities followed Earth Day 1970. When
polled in May 1971, 25 percent of the U.S. public declared protecting
the environment to be an important goal, a 2,500 percent increase over
1969.” Earth Day kicked off the “Environmental decade with a bang,” as
Senator Nelson later put it. During the 1970s, a number of important
pieces of environmental legislation were passed, among them the Clean
Air Act, the Water Quality Improvement Act, the Endangered Species Act,
the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Surface Mining Control and
Reclamation Act. Another key development was the establishment in
December 1970 of the Environmental Protection Agency, which was tasked
with protecting human health and safeguarding the natural
environment—air, water and land.
Since 1970, Earth Day celebrations have grown. In 1990, Earth Day
went global, with 200 million people in over 140 nations participating,
according to the Earth Day Network (EDN), a nonprofit organization that
coordinates Earth Day activities. In 2000, Earth Day focused on clean
energy and involved hundreds of millions of people in 184 countries and
5,000 environmental groups, according to EDN. Activities ranged from a
traveling, talking drum chain in Gabon, Africa, to a gathering of
hundreds of thousands of people at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Today, the Earth Day Network collaborates with more than 17,000
partners and organizations in 174 countries. According to EDN, more than
1 billion people are involved in Earth Day activities, making it “the
largest secular civic event in the world.”
(Source: www.history.com/topics/holidays/earth-day)
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