Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. ![]() This time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage. “It was a gamble,” Gaylord recalled, “but it worked.”Īs 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders asked Denis Hayes to organize another big campaign. By the end of that year, the first Earth Day had led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.Įarth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. On April 22,1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land. April 22, falling between Spring Break and Final Exams, was selected as the date. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair and recruited Denis Hayes from Harvard as national coordinator. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. ![]() Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. The idea for a national day to focus on the environment came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. The book represented a watershed moment, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries, and beginning to raise public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and links between pollution and public health.Įarth Day 1970 gave voice to that emerging consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-war protest movement and putting environmental concerns on the front page. “Environment” was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.Īlthough mainstream America largely remained oblivious to environmental concerns, the stage had been set for change by the publication of Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. ![]() Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. ![]() Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. The height of counterculture in the United States, 1970 brought the death of Jimi Hendrix, the last Beatles album, and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” War raged in Vietnam and students nationwide overwhelmingly opposed it.Īt the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Each year, Earth Day-April 22-marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
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