On this date (April 22) in the year 1970, Earth Day was celebrated for the first time in the US. Designed to demonstrate support for cooperative efforts to preserve the planet, the day is now a global endeavor, observed in nearly 200 countries. At a UNESCO conference in San Francisco in 1969, a peace activist named John McConnell proposed a day to honor Earth and the spread of peace. He wanted the day to be celebrated March 21, 1970 - the first day of spring for the northern hemisphere. The idea was sanctioned by the UN Secretary General U Thant - but that specific date was eclipsed by the efforts of Gaylord Nelson, a US Senator from Wisconsin, who scheduled an environmental teach-in event on April 22, 1970. Because of this work, Senator Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Huzzah! The first US Earth Day was observed in more than 2000 colleges and universities, around 10,000 elementary and secondary schools, and in hundreds of communities around the country. Estimates put the total number of people at around 20 million. The largest single gathering was in New York City. Mayor Lindsay shut down 5th Ave, and made Central Park available for the event - and more than a million people showed up - and since NYC was the home of the NBC, CBS, ABC, the NY Times, Time, Newsweek, etc., media coverage was pretty thorough. In 1990, to commemorate the 20th Earth Day, Denis Hayes, the chief organizer and speaker at that first NYC event, took it worldwide with the Earth Day Network - a nonprofit group that coordinated events in 141 countries. Warner Bros Records released a single called Tomorrows World featuring a whole bunch of the Whos That of 1990 country music. It didnt do great sales-wise or chart-wise... so Im not entirely sure why I even brought it up :) Historically, that first Earth Day celebration wasnt an isolated incident. Concern for our environment had been escalating for some time. Universities had been studying ecological issues for years at that point. Ralph Nader had been talking about it. Grassroots activism against DDT had been going for years. And the best-seller Silent Spring by Rachel Carson was published 8 years before. Of course the whole things wasnt without hilariously silly political controversy. When Senator Nelson first proposed April 22, he had carefully selected a date that would not interfere with final exams for college students - the largest active demographic - and it didnt conflict with Easter or Passover. However, the date unfortunately wouldve been the 100th birthday of Vladimir Lenin. Conservative wackos took that story and ran with it. Anonymous members of the Daughters of the American Revolution were quoted in a Time Magazine story as saying subversive elements plan to make American children live in an environment that is good for them. Eeek - those filthy commies! J. Edgar Hoover opened an investigation and increased surveillance after that article came out. I found reference to some folks who still believe that the date is proof that this whole things is a Communist plot... Im not going to link to those stories, because I dont want them to make any money from advertising click-throughs... Despite that little bit of insanity, the environmental message did manage to spread. Consciousness has grown quite a bit as a result. Not too long after that first Earth Day, President Nixon started the Environmental Protection Agency. Ecological activism became more widespread. People became aware of issues like air and water pollution, resource scarcity, and the environmental impact of our activities. Of course its still a controversial topic. There are still people who believe that there isnt a problem, that things will just take care of themselves. But in general, the movement has enjoyed some success. Earth Day has become one of the largest secular holidays in the world, observed to at least some extent by close to 2 billion people worldwide. As it turns out, its not just for tree-huggers anymore :) To celebrate the 44th Earth Day in the US, maybe just pay a bit more attention today. I dont want to stress you out too much (I know my readership :) ) - so try this one thing for me. To show your respect for our planet - which, for the moment at least, is the only one we have - try really hard to NOT run that Prius off the road when youre driving today. I know you can do it... I have faith in you! If we can keep all of the hybrids out of the median this year - maybe next year we can try getting a few less napkins from the fast-food counter... baby steps!
Posted on: Tue, 22 Apr 2014 15:18:51 +0000
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