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EARTH DAY

How a senator’s idea more than 50 years ago got people fighting for the planet

Published:Wednesday | April 24, 2024 | 12:06 AM
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Artist Kong Ning walks along a street as she wears her latest work, ‘Sing for the Earth’, in commemoration of Earth Day in Beijing on April 22, 2023.
AP
Artist Kong Ning walks along a street as she wears her latest work, ‘Sing for the Earth’, in commemoration of Earth Day in Beijing on April 22, 2023.
Climate activists hold a rally to protest the use of fossil fuels on Earth Day at Freedom Plaza in Washington on April 22, 2023.
AP
Climate activists hold a rally to protest the use of fossil fuels on Earth Day at Freedom Plaza in Washington on April 22, 2023.
This image released by Timber Press shows a Monarch butterfly resting on milkweed from the book “Nature’s Best Hope: How You Can Save the World in Your Own Yard” by Douglas W. Tallamy, adapted for a young audience by Sarah L. Thomson, from Tallamy’
AP
This image released by Timber Press shows a Monarch butterfly resting on milkweed from the book “Nature’s Best Hope: How You Can Save the World in Your Own Yard” by Douglas W. Tallamy, adapted for a young audience by Sarah L. Thomson, from Tallamy’s original release, “Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard.”
Tortillas in plastic packaging are seen near glass and plastic bottles at a grocery store in New Orleans. People are increasingly breathing, eating and drinking tiny particles of plastic, however, there are simple things people can do at the grocery store
AP
Tortillas in plastic packaging are seen near glass and plastic bottles at a grocery store in New Orleans. People are increasingly breathing, eating and drinking tiny particles of plastic, however, there are simple things people can do at the grocery store if they want to use less plastic.
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Millions of people around the world paused on Monday, at least for a moment, to mark Earth Day. It’s an annual event founded by people who hoped to stir activism to clean up and preserve a planet that is now home to some eight billion humans and assorted trillions of other organisms.

Here are answers to some common questions about Earth Day and how it came to be:

WHY DO WE CELEBRATE EARTH DAY?

Earth Day has its roots in the growing concern over pollution in the 1960s, when author Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring, about the pesticide DDT and its damaging effects on the food chain, hit bestseller lists and raised awareness about nature’s delicate balance.

But it was a senator from Wisconsin, Democrat Gaylord Nelson, who had the idea that would become Earth Day. Nelson had long been concerned about the environment when a massive offshore oil spill sent millions of gallons onto the southern California coast in 1969. Nelson, after touring the spill site, had the idea of doing a national “teach-in” on the environment, similar to teach-ins being held on some college campuses at the time to oppose the war in Vietnam.

Nelson and others, including activist Denis Hayes, worked to expand the idea beyond college campuses, with events all around the country, and came up with the Earth Day name.

WHY WAS APRIL 22 CHOSEN FOR EARTH DAY?

A history of the movement by EarthDay.org, where Hayes remains board chair emeritus, says the date of the first Earth Day — April 22, 1970 — was chosen because it fell on a weekday between spring break and final exams, and the aim was to attract as many students as possible.

IS EARTH DAY A REAL HOLIDAY?

It’s not a federal holiday. But many groups use the day to put together volunteer events with the environment in mind, such as clean-ups of natural areas. You can see a list of events worldwide, or register your own event, at EarthDay.org.

HAS IT HAD AN IMPACT?

It has. The overwhelming public response to the first Earth Day is credited with adding pressure for the US Congress to do more to address pollution, and it did, passing landmark legislation, including the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. More broadly, it’s seen as the birth of the modern environmental movement. In later years, Earth Day expanded to become a truly global event. It now claims to have motivated action in more than 192 countries.

In 2000, Earth Day began taking aim at climate change, a problem that has rapidly grown more urgent in recent years.

WHAT’S THE THEME THIS YEAR?

This year’s Earth Day focuses on the threat that plastics pose to our environment, with a call to end all single-use plastic and find replacements for their use, so they can quickly be phased down.

Associated Press