by DB Reiff
Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22, 1970, when approximately 20 million people participated in events at tens of thousands of sites including elementary and secondary schools, universities, and communities across the country. It was one of the largest grassroots community service movements in US history and is now celebrated every year by 1 billion people worldwide.
Until the first Earth Day, many Americans were unaware of how pollution threatened the environment and, in turn, wildlife and human health. They were also unsuspecting of the link between pollution and what the country saw as progress.
The success of Earth Day and the modern environmental movement is a tale of the human spirit, of momentum, and of three heroes who lit the way.
Environmental Degradation Gets on People’s Radar
After World War II, and the late 1950s, biologists, chemists, physicists, and others who had worked on new technologies during the war, were recruited by industry to convert those technologies into commercial products and practices. Those practices often included indiscriminate application of agricultural chemicals and pesticides that polluted streams, devastated bird and animal populations, and sickened people.
Understanding of those connections was beginning to grow due to the revolutionary work of Rachel Carson, our first hero. Her 1962 book Silent Spring, transformed how people understood the relationship between chemicals, the environment, and their health. The public started to realize that pollution wasn’t just ugly, but dangerous. Chemicals used for farming, toxic waste from manufacturing, air pollution, lead in the air and water could even be deadly.
The architect
By 1970, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, our second hero, had become frustrated that he couldn’t get his colleagues to act on environmental issues. So he decided to go straight to the people. He was confident that there was deep support for a movement to improve the environment. But, in his words, “I was not quite prepared for the overwhelming response that occurred on that day.”
That overwhelming response catapulted leaders into action and seven months later, on December 2, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed an executive order creating the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). By December 31, Congress passed Clean Air Act of 1970.
That was just the beginning. By 1972 Congress passed the Clean Water Act; in 1972 the EPA Banned the chemical DDT; in 1973 the EPA confirmed that lead from leaded gasoline posed a threat to public health and issued regulations reducing lead in gasoline; in 1974 the Safe Drinking Water Act was passed, in 1982 the EPA announced a rule requiring all elementary and secondary U.S. schools to test for asbestos in their buildings.
The struggle to slow pollution and maintain our environment continues to this day. We have Rachel Carson, Nelson Gaylord Nelson, and our third hero, the people that made the first Earth Day such a success, to thank for the safeguards we now enjoy. But slowing pollution and global climate change will take courage, persistence, and ongoing people-power. This Earth Day we invite you and your friends to join with the Friends of Chandler Pond to help make a difference in our own environmental jewel.
