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HISTORY OF EARTH DAY
". . .on April 22, 1970, Earth Day was held, one of the most
remarkable happenings in the history of democracy. . . "
-American Heritage Magazine, October 1993
How the First Earth Day Came About
For many years prior to Earth Day, it had been troubling to me that the
state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of our
country.
The President, the Congress, the economic power structure of the
nation and the press paid almost no attention to this issue, which is of
such staggering import to our future. It was clear that until we somehow got
this matter into the political arena -- until it became part of the national
political dialogue -- not much would ever be achieved. The puzzling
challenge was to think up some dramatic event that would focus national
attention on the environment.
Finally, in 1962, an idea occurred to me that
was, I thought, a virtual cinch to get the environment into the political
limelight once and for all.
President Kennedy Conservation Tour
That idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give national visibility to
this issue by going on a nationwide conservation tour, spelling out in
dramatic language the serious and deteriorating condition of our
environment.
The President liked the idea and went on his five-day
conservation tour in late September 1963. For many reasons, the tour didn't
achieve what I had hoped for; it did not succeed in making the environment a
national political issue. However, it was the germ of the idea that
ultimately flowered into Earth Day.
Six years would pass before the idea for
Earth Day occurred to me in the summer of 1969, while on a conservation
speaking tour out West.
Environmental Teach-In
At that time, there was a great deal of turmoil on the college campuses over
the Vietnam War. Protests, called anti-war teach-ins, were being widely held
on campuses across the nation. On a flight from Santa Barbara to the
University of California-Berkeley, I read an article on the teach-ins, and
it suddenly occurred to me: Why not have a nation-wide teach-in on the
environment. That was the origin of Earth Day.
In a speech in Seattle in September 1969, I announced there would be a
national environmental teach-in in the Spring of 1970. The wire services
carried the story nationwide. The response was dramatic. It took off like
gangbusters.
Lasting Results:
Earth Day achieved what I had hoped for. The objective was to get a
nationwide demonstration of concern for the environment so large that it
would shake the political establishment out of its lethargy and, finally,
force this issue permanently onto the national political agenda.
It was a
gamble, but it worked. An estimated twenty million people participated in
demonstrations all across the country.
It was truly an astonishing grassroots explosion. The people cared, and
Earth Day became the first opportunity they ever had to join in a nationwide
demonstration to send a big message to the politicians--a message to tell
them to wake up an do something. (end)
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