Earth Day
April 21st, 2009 is Earth Day, the one day a year we exclusively give back to our planet. There are many ways to get involved in your community as well in your home. Take the time to clean up your home, neighborhood and community and recycle whatever you clean up. For more way to get involved in your community visit www.EarthDay.net.
History of Earth Day
The idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For many years, the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. In November 1962, an idea occurred to Senator Gaylord Nelson that would put the environment into the political “limelight” once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour. The President began his five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.
Senator Nelson continued to speak on environmental issues to a variety of audiences in some twenty-five states. All across the country, evidence of environmental degradation was appearing everywhere, and everyone noticed except the political establishment. The environmental issue simply was not to be found on the nation’s political agenda. The people were concerned, but the politicians were not.
After President Kennedy’s tour, many earth lovers hoped for some idea that would thrust the environment into the political mainstream. Six years would pass before the idea that became Earth Day occurred while Senator Nelson was on a conservation speaking tour out West in the summer of 1969. At the time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, called “teach-ins,” had spread to college campuses all across the nation. Why not organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment?
At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, Senator Nelson announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. 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.
On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was held. People all over the country made promises to help the environment. Everyone got involved and since then, Earth Day has spread all over the planet. People all over the world know that there are problems we need to work on and this is our special day to look at the planet and see what needs changing.