Earth Day 1970

As we approach the 40th Earth Day it is perhaps instructive to look back to the first Earth Day in 1970.   In 1970 words such as “ecology” and “environment” had not entered the popular vocabulary and “green” signified nothing beyond a color.  Indeed, Earth Day, 1970 is generally credited as the beginning of the “environmental movement”.  At the time, the United States essentially lacked any effective legislation to protect our Nation’s air, land and water; indeed, it was perfectly legal to dump unlimited amounts of pollutants into the air or waterways.

Two environmental events gained national attention in 1969, one was the massive, 200,000 gallon, Santa Barbara (California) oil spill which started on January 29th, and in June the heavily polluted Cuyahoga River, in the heart of Cleveland, Ohio caught on fire.  The Santa Barbara oil spill quickly resulted in an unprecedented volunteer effort to cleanse and care for oil-coated seabirds.  This rescue effort rapidly became a major news story.  While the Cuyahoga River had burned on several previous occasions, and the June fire was readily extinguished, it also received national publicity and was widely used to illustrate how polluted the Nation’s rivers had become.

In the fall of 1969, Senator Gaylord Nelson was returning to Washington, D.C. from an visit to the Santa Barbara oil spill site, when he  conceived  the idea that would become Earth Day.   Senator Nelson, who while serving as the governor of Wisconsin had been nicknamed the “Conservation Governor”, had been reading an article about the “teach-ins” that were then spontaneously occurring on college campuses around the nation.  Why not, he reasoned, have environmental teach-ins?   And if they were all held on the same day would they not gain maximum publicity?  Senator Nelson later mentioned the idea in a Seattle speech and it was soon reported in the press.  Senator Nelson had envisioned the idea as one of locally organized and managed events, not one that was nationally organized.  However, as his senate office rapidly became overwhelmed with requests for information he established an Environmental Teach-in organization and hired a young Harvard graduate student, Denis Hayes, to manage the organization in supply of information and support.  While interest rapidly grew beyond college campuses, the date of April 22 was chosen strictly because of college spring break and exam schedules.  No doubt it did not hurt that the Spring equinox occurred on April 22 in 1970.

A mere eight months after Senator Nelson had the idea, 1 of every 10 Americans actively participated in Earth Day 1970 activities.  From a crowd of over 100,000 people on Fifth Avenue, New York to small groups of school children planting trees, Earth Day was celebrated across the nation.   One unanticipated, but remarkable consequence was the number of local coalitions that resulted from the emphasis on grassroots planning as local organizations came together to promote a common cause; and which resulted in truly community-oriented Earth Day celebrations. 

While organized locally, most Earth Day celebrations had common elements of educational events, service activities such stream or park cleanups, entertainment and of course, speeches.  While the  major environmental emphasis was on pollution, population was also a major issue at the time and was a component of many Earth Day celebrations. 

Earth Day was not without its detractors.  Fanned by releases from the John Birch Society some felt that it was an attempt at a communist take-over of the United States since April 22 also happens to be Lenin’s birthday, and organizations from the Daughters of the American Revolution to the anti-war movement denounced it as subversive, or detracting.  And or course, just as today there were a number of “deniers”  who claimed that pollution did not exist, or was a sign of progress, or not worth spending money to clean up.  But the the massive outpouring of public interest and involvement was a surprise to many, and could not be ignored.

Presidential papers show that President Nixon didn’t really understand many of the environmental concerns and was not particularly interested in environmental matters; but, as a result of Earth Day he recognized that environment issues had broad public support. Therefore in July he proposed the formation of an Environmental Protection Agency, and the EPA was authorized by Congress in December.  Congressional support for the EPA was no doubt enhanced by the fact that environmental support became a major issue in the 1970 mid-term elections, contributing to the removal of several dissenting members of Congress by candidates who pledged support on environmental matters.  With the support of both the administration and Congress a landslide of environmental legislation was enacted, including:  significant amendments to both the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act (1970), the Environmental Education Act of 1970, the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973.  Ironically, President Nixon rejected any attempt to control automobile emissions, believing it to be bad for the (then faltering) economy.

Forty years later we still celebrate Earth Day, but sadly not with the enthusiasm, nor broad public support, that marked the 1970 event.  In fact today it is difficult to imagine that 1 out of 10 Americans joining with other members of their community to partake in such an event.  It is also difficult to imagine that our elected leaders would respond as they did in 1970.

In the years since Earth Day 1970 the concern about population has all but evaporated, while the U.S. population has increased from 203 million in 1970 to 309 million today. In the same time period the world’s population has increased from 3.7 billion to over 6.8 billion, and on average 1 person a second, or 36 million people a year now die of starvation. 

On the other hand,  the laws passed in the ‘70s have provided significant protection for our air and waters.  However, in many regards the laws and regulations have not kept up with the threats, and current health concerns.  For example, water standards for heavy metals and organics are deficient or lacking, while the concentrations of both are increasing in many of our surface waters.  And, one does not need to look beyond the emission of greenhouse gases as an example of current air pollution concerns.  In the 40 years since 1970 the CO₂ concentration of the atmosphere has risen from 325ppm to 391ppm, an increase of 20%.

The lasting legacy of Earth Day 1970 is true to Senator Nelson’s vision of an environmental teach-in.  Earth Day is now celebrated in nations around the world, an annual reminder of our responsibility to planet earth and those who will inhabit her in our stead.  There can be no doubt that the inhabitants of Earth are now far better informed about the environment than they were in 1970; but, while that knowledge is far broader,  the intensity of concern, and the commitment to environmental protection appears to be far less.