The first Earth Day occurred in response to numerous environmental disasters and increased concern over pollution. Rachel Carson’s bestseller Silent Spring published in 1969, informed the public of the toxicity of widely-used pesticides. In 1969 the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire due to the dumping of chemicals into the waterway by industry. In Santa Barbara, the same year, a three million gallon oil spill occurred off the coast of Santa Barbara and spread over 35 miles.

Pollution was one of the top concerns for over half the public by 1970. After viewing the oil spill, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson came up with the idea for an environmental teach-in, inspired by the teach-ins against the Vietnam War.

Dennis Hayes, a student, and activist at Stanford, was chosen as the national coordinator of the first Earth Day. He worked with staff members from Nelson’s Senate office and numerous student volunteers to organize the project. “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,” says Nelson.

The first Earth Day involved tens of thousands of organized local events such as demonstrations, actions, and parades with more than 35,000 speakers across the country. Congress took the day off, and two-thirds of its members spoke at Earth Day events.  Twenty million people participated in events demanding change.

Earth Day is credited with the beginning of the environmental movement. The Clean Air, Clean Water, Endangered Species Acts, Toxic Substances Control Act, and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act were created as well as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  The EPA was designated as the agency with the mission of protecting human health, air, water, and land.

Since then, Earth Day has been recognized every year on April 22. In 2000, according to the Earth Day Network, hundreds of millions of people in 184 countries and 5,000 environmental groups celebrated Earth Day, focusing on clean energy. According to EDN, over 1 billion people participate in Earth Day activities today, making it “the largest secular civic event in the world.” Earth Day has been recognized globally with protests, actions, parades, and educational events. April 22, 2020, is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and this year the focus is on Climate Change.

We are glad to take part in this year’s recognition of the progress we have made while acknowledging the critical work still to be done.

Sources: Christian Science Monitor, Smithsonian magazine, archives.NYC, collection.vam.ac.uk, EarthDay.org