The First Earth Day

Photograph

By: Anonymous

Date: April 22, 1970

Source: Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

About the Photographer: This photograph is part of the Getty Images collection, a worldwide provider of visual content materials to advertisers, broadcasters, designers, magazines, news media organizations, newspapers, and producers. The photographer is not known.

INTRODUCTION

Earth Day observes and celebrates the environmental health of the Earth, emphasizing the need for a clean and healthy environment for all living things. It is usually celebrated on April 22 of each year; however, some events are planned for the weekends before or after the date and can last for days or weeks. Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Anton Nelson (1916–2005) established the first Earth Day celebration on April 22, 1970. (Some people celebrate Earth Day on the vernal equinox, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere, an idea first proposed by John McConnell in 1970.)

According to Nelson, his idea of dedicating a day to celebrate the Earth's environment developed over a seven-year period. In 1962 he realized that while many people in the United States were concerned about the environment, few American politicians were. He persuaded President John Kennedy to tour eleven states in September 1963 to emphasize conservation. Although the trip did not generate national publicity, Nelson felt it provided a foundation for later actions. Over the next six years, he talked to audiences around the country about the need to protect the ecosystem.

Then in the summer of 1969, after observing anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, he decided to organize a grass roots protest to bring attention to environmental damage. In September 1969 he announced his plans to launch a nationwide protest the following spring. The news media carried the story, spurring interest from individuals and groups across the country. On November 30, 1969, environmental journalist Gladwin Hill published a story in The New York Times that related growing public concern over the environment.

On April 22, 1970, about 20 million American schoolchildren, college students, and adults participated in Earth Day rallies and demonstrations to honor the Earth and show support for environmental reform. One of the more notable events was held in New York City—Mayor John Lindsay closed Fifth Avenue for an ecology fair in Central Park.

Nelson received many awards in his lifetime, including the Ansel Adams Conservation Award in 1990, an award given to federal officials who have dedicated themselves to conservation and land ethics; the Only One World award from the United Nations Environment Programme in 1992; followed by the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian honor, in 1995. Nelson served ten years (1948–1958) as a state senator in Wisconsin; one term as governor of Wisconsin (1958–1963); and eighteen years (1963–1981) as a U.S. senator from Wisconsin. After leaving the Senate, Nelson became a counselor for the Wilderness Society.

PRIMARY SOURCE

THE FIRST EARTH DAY

See primary source image.

SIGNIFICANCE

By the beginning of the twenty-first century, Earth Day was celebrated annually by more than 500 million people in over 140 countries. Many environmental groups organized events to emphasize local, regional, national, and global environmental problems and suggest ways to solve them. Air, soil, and water pollution are popular subjects for Earth Day events, as are the destruction of habitats and ecosystems, depletion of nonrenewable resources, and reduction in the number of animal and plant species. Environmental exhibitions at Earth Day celebrations often focus on ways that individuals can help, such as recycling, conserving, leading healthier lifestyles, making lands friendlier to wildlife, picking up litter, cleaning up bodies of water, and planting trees.

Coordinating Earth Day activities worldwide is one function of the environmental awareness organization called Earth Day Network (EDN), founded by organizers of the first Earth Day. Its mission is to encourage individuals, organizations, governments, and corporations to take responsibility for a clean and healthy environment. EDN activists promote environmental citizenship by helping about 12,000 groups in 174 countries each year with Earth Day and general environmental activities. Its American program helps over 3,000 groups and more than 100,000 educators by coordinating efforts for millions of community development and environmental protection activities.

Nelson credited the first Earth Day celebration with convincing politicians to develop environment-friendly legislation. Since then, Congress has passed many laws that protect, manage, and preserve the environment. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which began operations on December 2, 1970, was one of the first federal organizations created by environmental legislation. The EPA is responsible for the environmental health of the country as specified through various facets of federal legislation. One such law is the Clean Air Act, enacted in 1970, which directs the EPA to establish and enforce national air-quality standards to protect both the public health and environment. According to the EPA, between 1970 and 2005, the gross domestic product increased 19 percent, motorized vehicle miles traveled by 178 percent, energy consumption by 48 percent, and the U.S. population by forty-two percent. During this same thirty-five year period, however, the total emission of the six major air pollutants—carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide—dropped by fifty-three percent.

Congress also passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (1970), Clean Water Act (1970), Endangered Species Act (1973), Safe Drinking Water Act (1974), Toxic Substances Control Act (1976), and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund, 1980).

Many environmental organizations were also created or revitalized by Earth Day. Greenpeace, for instance, was founded in 1971 to concentrate on diminished whale populations and problematic nuclear power plants. The Nature Conservancy began to expand in the early 1970s by purchasing undeveloped lands for nature preserves. The Sierra Club and the National Audubon Society began to sue companies that it considered harmed the environment with their practices, such as northwestern logging companies that harvested old-growth forests.

Many American citizens were spurred to recycle in the 1970s, and communities began to establish recycling programs in the 1980s. By the 1990s, many recycling programs were converting trash into useful products, reducing the amount of trash dumped into landfills. During that same decade, many corporations began to adopt more efficient industrial operations.

Throughout its history, Earth Day has strengthened the support for environmental programs, and helped build volunteerism in communities around the world. When Earth Day celebrated its thirty-fifth anniversary in 2005, its legacy showed that the environment's health is a major concern for everyone.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Christofferson, Bill. The Man from Clear Lake: Earth Day Founder Gaylord Nelson. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004.

Graham, Mary. The Morning after Earth Day: Practical Environmental Politics. Washington, DC: Governance Institute, Brookings Institution Press, 1999.

Nelson, Gaylord, with Susan Campbell, and Paul Wozniak. Beyond Earth Day: Fulfilling the Promise. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.

Web sites

Earth Day Network. <http://www.earthday.net/default.aspx> (accessed May 11, 2006).

EarthDay.gov. "Environmental Highlights: Federal Government Actions." <http://www.earthday.gov/ fedactions.htm> (accessed May 11, 2006).

EnviroLink: The Online Environmental Community. "How the First Earth Day Came About." <http://earthday.envirolink.org/history.html> (accessed May 11, 2006).