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Earth Day—April 22
When and why did Earth Day start?

Sandy Dickson

     When Senator Gaylord Nelson took a trip to Santa Barbara in 1969, he was horrified to see the results of the recent oil spill that had happened off the California coast. An active environmentalist anyway, he saw it as international degradation. With his concerns and interests always being fervent toward the earth and its preservation, he returned to Washington D.C., where he instigated a bill designating April 22 as a national day to celebrate the earth. He wanted it to become a day to acclaim the earth as well as demonstrate political support for an environmental agenda.

     He also modeled the first Earth Day occasion after the current Vietnam War protests that were effectively sweeping the country. He selected as his national coordinator, the Harvard student and Stanford graduate named Denis Hayes, who included a nationwide war protest to be part of the event. Pete Seeger was the keynote speaker and performer at the Washington D.C. on the first Earth Day in 1970 with Paul Newman and Ali McGraw in attendance at the simultaneous event in New York City.

     Two thousand colleges and universities participated as well as about ten thousand primary and secondary schools and hundreds of communities across the U.S.

     As it was designed, Earth Day brings people together in spring’s warmth and promise in the common bond of remembering environmental concerns and peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform.

    The result has not been insignificant. Senator Nelson can be directly credited for influencing U.S. politicians into action toward environmental-related issues. Important laws were passed by Congress since this awakening, such as Clean Air Act, laws protecting drinking water, wild lands and the ocean.

     There is another lesser-known Earth Day. On February 26, 1971 UN Secretary-General U Thant signed a proclamation that around March 21, the vernal equinox is celebrated to mark the precise moment that spring begins in the Northern hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. In equinox, night and day are in equal length anywhere on Earth. At the South Pole, the sun sets and ends a six-month-long day at the same time the sun rises at the North Pole ending six months of continual darkness. This United Nations celebration is known as equinoctial Earth Day, and is observed by the ringing of the Japanese Peace Bell, which is a bell donated by Japan to the United Nations. However the United Nations also works with the organizers of the April 22nd global earth day.

     There is now a non-profit Earth Day Network that coordinates the more well-known Earth Day observation in 175 countries. Earth Day is the largest secular modern-day holiday in the world. For more information, see earthday.org