Earth Day

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Earth Day

Introduction

Earth Day is an environment-oriented celebration that occurs every spring. There are, in fact, two competing Earth Days; one is celebrated every April 22 and the other every spring equinox (on or about March 20). Both Earth Days were first celebrated in 1970 and are still observed today. The April 22 Earth Day is acknowledged by the U.S. government; the phrase “Earth Day” usually signifies April 22 in the United States. The spring-equinox Earth Day, on the other hand, is observed by the United Nations. Earth Day is symbolically important, and even politicians who are sometimes at odds with environmental policy often take care to demonstrate their ecological consciousness on Earth Day.

Historical Background and Scientific Foundations

Both the April 22 and the global Spring Equinox Earth Days were first suggested in 1969. In September 1969, Senator Gaylord Nelson (1916–2005; Democrat, Wisconsin) announced that in early 1970 there would be a national demonstration on behalf of the environment (i.e., against pollution and environmental degradation, in favor of conservation). According to Nelson, he had been thinking about such a demonstration since 1962, when he persuaded President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) to make a tour of conservation sites, visiting 11 states. But the tour did little to bring more national attention to environmental issues. Nelson, still dissatisfied, sought a project that would do so.

By the late 1960s, large protests against the Vietnam war and teach-ins—intensive teaching sessions conveying anti-war information that were free to the public—had become commonplace. Nelson considered it possible to tap into this rebellious energy for pro-environmental purposes, and so, in September 1969, announced the first Earth Day. Staffers in Nelson’s office worked to coordinate the combined protest, celebration, and teach-in, but its scale quickly became so large that it became necessary for the event to be mostly self-organized by participants. Approximately 20 million demonstrators participated in Earth Day activities in the United States on April 22, 1970. Earth Day has been celebrated in the United States on that date ever since.

In 1969, another environmentalist and peace activist, John McConnell (1915–), conceived independently of celebrating an Earth Day. McConnell had arranged a global “Minute for Peace” on December 22, 1963, and it was while working on that project that he conceived of a global Earth Day. In 1969, he persuaded the city government of San Francisco (named after St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and birds) to declare March 21, 1970, the spring equinox, Earth Day. Celebrations were held in San Francisco.

The equinoctial Earth Day was dwarfed by the national Earth Day that followed almost exactly a month later, but globally, the situation is somewhat reversed, with the equinoctial Earth Day gaining wide international recognition thanks to its link to the United Nations. Every spring equinox since 1971, the Peace Bell at the United Nations headquarters in New York City (a gift from Japan in 1954, hung outdoors in a protective shrine) is rung at the exact moment of the equinox in honor of Earth Day.

Impacts and Issues

Earth Day originated at a time of explosive growth in concern for the environment and the subsequent environmental movement: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established later in 1970, the Clean

WORDS TO KNOW

ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT: A diverse social, political, and scientific movement revolving around the preservation of Earth’s environment.

EQUINOX: Either of the two times during the year when the sun crosses the plane of Earth’s equator, making night and day of approximately equal length.

GREENHOUSE GAS: A gas whose accumulation in the atmosphere increases heat retention.

Air Act was also passed that year, and the environmental activist group Greenpeace was founded in 1971.

The continuing symbolic importance of the April 22 Earth Day in the United States is shown by the care taken by politicians to honor it. For example, President George W. Bush, whose administration has been criticized by environmental groups repeatedly for such actions as being slow to declare polar bears an endangered species and for refusing to have the EPA regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants, has arranged a number of Earth-friendly public appearances on various Earth Days. On Earth Day 2004, Bush visited a nature preserve in Wells, Maine, while Maine environmentalists protested outside the preserve. In 2005, he planned to celebrate Earth Day by helping volunteers repair a trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but stormy weather forced a change of plans and the president ended up speaking briefly to reporters and supporters in an airplane hangar. In 2006 Bush began Earth Day by taking a bike ride through a redwood forest in California. Later that day he gave a speech promoting his plan for fuel-cell powered hydrogen cars.

Earth Day Network, a coalition of groups and activists worldwide dedicated to celebrating the April 22 Earth Day, has been active in efforts to combat global warming. In 2006 the organization joined the Clinton Climate Initiative, an attempt to foster international reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions promoted by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.