Earth Day was first observed on April 22, 1970, at a time when concern for the environment was just emerging as a public issue.

More than twenty million Americans took to the streets to demonstrate their concern for
the environment, making it the largest demonstration in the nation's history.

In Washington DC, more than 200,000 gathered on the Mall in front of the Capitol
building to encourage government officials and their fellow citizens to preserve the
wilderness and the earth's natural resources.

Almost every politician in Washington was involved in the event, although, up to this
point, most of them had assumed that environmental issues were relatively low on the
average citizen's list of priorities.

The idea of preserving the environment was nothing new. Explorers, writers, and
naturalists like John Muir, John J. Audubon, and Henry David Thoreau had already fought
to save the American wilderness.

Their efforts led to the establishment of the national park system and groups like the
Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society. But it was Rachel Carson who brought the
environmental message home to Americans with her 1962 book, Silent Spring.

It warned people about the deadly effects of chemical pollution and led to the passage of
federal laws banning DDT and other harmful agricultural chemicals.

It was Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin who came up with the idea for setting aside
a day to honor the environment in which we live, and forty-two state legislatures passed
Earth Day resolutions.

Nelson's original idea was to hold an environmental "teach-in"-a day-long educational
event that combined rallies, speeches, lectures, and other programs designed to raise
public awareness of the hazards facing the environment.

Nelson was also the first Congressman to introduce a bill banning DDT, and he sponsored a number of bills aimed at preserving the Appalachian Trail and other wild and
scenic areas in the United States.

Activities that first year varied widely: Some cities lowered bus fares to encourage more
people to leave their cars at home, while 200 demonstrators carried coffins into Boston's
Logan Airport to protest its noise-polluting plans for expansion.

Elsewhere, concerned citizens collected garbage and deposited it on the steps of their
local courthouse or statehouse. Mayor John Lindsay of New York led a march that closed
down part of the city's Fifth Avenue, one of the busiest commercial streets in the world.

Altogether, more than 20 million people in 2,000 communities and on 12,000 high school
and college campuses participated in ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVITIES .

April 22 is also ARBOR DAY, which, with its emphasis on planting trees, has been largely
replaced by Earth Day. Some people observe Earth Day on the VERNAL EQUINOX .

Full story:
https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Earth+Day

Mike Dippel

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