The Birth of Earth Day

From the desk of April: earthapril@gmail.com
There are varying accounts as to who first designated the specific day, Earth Day, to be set aside for celebrating the planet.  However, the first celebrations called Earth Day all happened in 1970, making this year the 34th anniversary of Earth Day.  No matter the process, the concept and resulting impact remains the same in all cases.  Earth Day originated from an awareness of the Earth, and its impact has been nothing short of a miracle.

For many, the earliest mention of the term “Earth Day” was written by John McConnell in a proposal submitted to Peter Tamaris on October 3, 1969.  Tamaris headed the San Francisco Board of Supervisors which proceeded with approval, and Mayor George Christopher issued the proclamation which inaugurated the first Earth Day.  A few other cities in Northern California did the same.  The name "Earth Day" was not used before this by anyone who has come forward with documented evidence. 

A portion of this proposal reads, “That in the City and County of San Francisco March 21st (Vernal Equinox) be the designated EARTH DAY - a special day to remember Earth's tender seedlings of life and people; a day for planting trees and grass and flowers, for cleaning streams and wooded glens”.  As this shows, the proposal called for observance of Earth Day on March 21st, which is the Vernal Equinox.  This is the moment when night and day are equal throughout the Earth --reminding us of Earth's beautiful systems of balance.  From Humanity's earliest history, people of many cultures have celebrated this day as the beginning of spring - symbolizing renewal of life.  Three thousand years ago humans built Stonehenge with stones arranged to measure the very moment of the Vernal Equinox. 

Also, in 1969, Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, announced at a conference that he would be planning a “nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment.”  Thus, he proposed the first nationwide environmental protest "to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda. " "It was a gamble," he recalls, "but it worked."  The response to his office was overwhelming!  As he says, “telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air - and they did so with spectacular exuberance.”  He continued to spearhead the effort to get the environmental agenda into the political spectrum until finally, five months before Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the astonishing proliferation of environmental events:
"Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam...a national day of observance of environmental problems...is being planned for next spring...when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in'...coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned...."  It became obvious to him that his office could no longer carry this load.  He handed over the grassroots movement to Denis Hays and staffed the office with college students.  This soon became known as the modern Earth Day Network (www.earthday.net).  Gaylord Nelson said, “Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.”

This event, originally to be a one time event and called an Environmental Teach-In was organized for April 22 and also called Earth Day.  On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment.  Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies.  Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the 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.  Sen. Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- the highest honor given to civilians in the United States -- for his role as Earth Day founder.  In 1971 Senator Gaylord Nelson announced an Earth Week for the third week of April -- as a yearly event.

In 1972 at the Stockholm Conference, Japan obtained support for a resolution calling for World Environment Day to be observed on June 5, the day the Stockholm Conference began.  Secretary General U Thant proclaimed Earth Day  and spoke in its behalf at a Peace Bell Ceremony at the United Nations on March 21, 1971.  Secretary General Waldheim observed Earth Day with similar ceremonies in 1972.  The United Nations Earth Day ceremony continued each year on the day of the March equinox  (20th or 21st), with the ringing of the U.N. Peace Bell at the very moment of the equinox.  In 1975 the U.S. Congress and President Ford proclaimed and urged observance of Earth Day on the March equinox.

Regardless of who founded Earth Day or upon which day it is celebrated, Earth Day remains as one of the most memorable markers in human history for raising awareness of our place in the universe.  We went from a time where pollution was equaled with prosperity to an understanding of our planet as an ecosystem and our position as caretakers within it.  Earth Day is not the only marker in our history to have done so.  Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring” brought a widespread awareness of chemicals and how they were affecting American’s health.  Aldo Leopold, who passed away in the late 1940’s, wrote “The Sand County Almanac”.  This book became a mainstay in American Conservationism.  His book changed the view of game management (now wildlife management) from the view that deer were good and wolves were bad to an understanding of the way ecosystems work and our harmonious relationship with them.  His ideas also showed aesthetics as a measure of the rightness sand wrongness of our actions and how this helps us to develop a personal environmental ethic.   He showed that it is necessary for humans to place rational restraints upon ourselves so that the critical earth cycles are more likely to be preserved.  

Earth Day is not a day.  It is a summary of many movements.  It is a spirit seeping up through grassroots and into the hearts of children, adults, politicians, teachers, and corporations.  Earth Day is a philosophy, a celebration, an understanding, an ethics, and a plan.  Earth Day unites.  It unites opposing people and ideas for one day of understanding that we are all simply children from the same mother—Mother Earth, and if we harm her as from our actions, then none of us will prosper.  The Earth Day Network invites, “Now, the fight for a clean environment continues.  We invite you to be a part of this history and a part of Earth Day.  Discover energy you didn't even know you had.  Feel it rumble through the grass roots under your feet and the technology at your fingertips.  Channel it into building a clean, healthy, diverse world for generations to come.”