The history of Earth Day

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Earth Day was a big deal. Every April 22nd, or the weekend leading up to it, my whole family would go into the city for various Earth Day festivities. My favorite Earth Day memory was in Golden Gate Park when I was 13 years old. I got to see Alanis Morissette, Tracy Chapman, Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Julia Butterfly Hill (that incredible lady who lived in a tree for a year) share a stage and advocate for the protection of our planet. It was awesome. These Earth Day celebrations were always about good music, consciousness and activism. A day to honor Mother Earth. A time to come together and pay tribute to this amazing planet that we get to call home. A pretty perfect day in my book.

Coming from a household of environmental activists and living in a town where being socially conscious, especially about the environment, was the norm, these ideals and values were pretty well integrated into my everyday life. But celebrating Earth Day every April was still a special occasion and remains that way for me to this day. Although Earth Day has always been a part of my life, it wasn’t until recently that I really learned about the fascinating history behind this day. Here is what I found:

According to the Earth Day Network, April 22nd marks the anniversary of what many people would consider to be the “birth of the modern environmental movement” that began in 1970. This was the height of “flower-child” culture and protests were prevalent, although many focused on the Vietnam War. The Earth Day Network’s website tells us:

At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. “Environment” was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news. Although mainstream America remained oblivious to environmental concerns, the stage had been set for change by the publication of Rachel Carson's New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment for the modern environmental movement, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries and, up until that moment, more than any other person, Ms. Carson raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and public health. Earth Day 1970 capitalized on the emerging consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-war protest movement and putting environmental concerns front and center.

Gaylord Nelson, a former US Senator from Wisconsin, had the idea to found Earth Day after seeing the awful aftermath of an oil spill in Santa Barbara, California in 1969. He saw an opportunity to mobilize the students involved in the anti-war movement to get behind the idea of putting environmental protection on the national political agenda. He recruited Denis Hayes who would later create the Earth Day Network, and the plan that year was to host a national teach-in on the environment. What ended up happening was 20 million Americans took to the streets across the United States to rally and protest against the “deterioration of our environment.”

Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values. Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.

In 1990, Earth Day went global. Denis Hayes mobilized 200 million people in 141 countries, and successfully brought environmental issues to the forefront of global discourse. Earth Day 1990 had a huge focus on recycling efforts and was instrumental in paving the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit that took place in Rio de Janeiro.

Today, Earth Day is observed in 192 different countries and is considered to be the largest secular holiday in the world, bringing together more than a billion people each year. From the very start, Earth Day has served as a powerful platform for citizens of the world to send a loud message to world leaders that they care about the environment and that we must make protecting our planet a priority.

Join in the tradition this year and head to Washington, DC and take part in Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day. Or find a local Earth Day celebration near you.

TopicsEnvironment Citizenship Global US Earth Day North America Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day