History of Earth Day

From TreeHugger.com
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California on 04.13.09

For anyone in the green movement under 30 in the US, Earth Day has always just...been. It's existed as a day when you head to the park or zoo with your parents for activities that have to do with recycling, gardening, and saving endangered animals. Or if you're in high school or college, it's the day you go plant trees or participate in a river clean-up and get some extra community service credits. But, how did it start? Really, it's an example of grassroots environmentalism at its best.

In 1962, Senator Gaylord Nelson decided the environment needed to take a bigger priority in politics, so he convinced President Kennedy to do a national conservation tour. It was a five-day, eleven-state tour in September of '63. And the result...a big, “So what?” from every other politician.

On to plan B.
Six years later, in 1969 when war protests were all the rage, Senator Nelson came up with the idea of holding a national protest against the destruction of the environment.

"I was satisfied that if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but worth a try."

He was right. The event, held on April 22, 1970 and organized through grassroots, word-of-mouth methods, was a massive success with over 20 million people taking part across the nation. Imagine that...20 million people gathering around green, and all well before Twitter and its Twestivals, or Facebook and its Cause Badges.

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