During the first Earth Day I remember, my family joined a community project to clean up a branch of the Grand River in Eaton Rapids, MI. I was nine, so my memory is blurred, but the river branch may have been drained, so we could access trash more easily. Wearing rubber boots and gloves, we picked up old cans and bottles as we walked over a rocky river bottom.
My goal for Earth Day 2011 was to lower my carbon footprint for the day. I successfully avoided driving, but I spent too much time online. Ironically, fossil fuel-driven media provide much of the information we have regarding Earth Day and the envrionmental movement. See for example, the Green Light Earth Day Film Festival, Earth Day Television (http://www.earthdaytv.net/) and the web stories below (the first from The Earth-Day Network, and the second from Eastern Illinois University's newspaper, the Daily Eastern News).
Green Light Earth Day Film Festival:
From The Earth Day Network:
Earth Day: The History of A Movement
Each year, Earth Day -- April 22 -- marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
The height of hippie and flower-child culture in the United States, 1970 brought the death of Jimi Hendrix, the last Beatles album, and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. Protest was the order of the day, but saving the planet was not the cause. War raged in Vietnam, and students nationwide increasingly opposed it.
At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. “Environment” was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news. Although mainstream America remained oblivious to environmental concerns, the stage had been set for change by the publication of Rachel Carson's New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment for the modern environmental movement, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries and, up until that moment, more than any other person, Ms. Carson raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and public health.
Earth Day 1970 capitalized on the emerging consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-war protest movement and putting environmental concerns front and center.
The idea came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media; persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair; and recruited Denis Hayes as national coordinator. Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land.
As a result, on the 22nd of April, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in 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, andEndangered Species Acts. "It was a gamble," Gaylord recalled, "but it worked."
As 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders asked Denis Hayes to organize another big campaign. This time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage. Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It also prompted President Bill Clinton to award Senator Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1995) -- the highest honor given to civilians in the United States -- for his role as Earth Day founder.
As the millennium approached, Hayes agreed to spearhead another campaign, this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. With 5,000 environmental groups in a record 184 countries reaching out to hundreds of millions of people, Earth Day 2000 combined the big-picture feistiness of the first Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990. It used the Internet to organize activists, but also featured a talking drum chain that traveled from village to village in Gabon, Africa, and hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Earth Day 2000 sent world leaders the loud and clear message that citizens around the world wanted quick and decisive action on clean energy.
Much like 1970, Earth Day 2010 came at a time of great challenge for the environmental community. Climate change deniers, well-funded oil lobbyists, reticent politicians, a disinterested public, and a divided environmental community all contributed to a strong narrative that overshadowed the cause of progress and change. In spite of the challenge, for its 40th anniversary, Earth Day Network reestablished Earth Day as a powerful focal point around which people could demonstrate their commitment. Earth Day Network brought 225,000 people to the National Mall for a Climate Rally, amassed 40 million environmental service actions toward its 2012 goal of A Billion Acts of Green®, launched an international, 1-million tree planting initiative with Avatar director James Cameron and tripled its online base to over 900,000 community members.
The fight for a clean environment continues in a climate of increasing urgency, as the ravages of climate change become more manifest every day. We invite you to be a part of Earth Day and help write many more victories and successes into our history. Discover energy you didn't even know you had. Feel it rumble through the grassroots under your feet and the technology at your fingertips. Channel it into building a clean, healthy, diverse world for generations.
Earth Day at Eastern Illinois University
Earth Day tree to be planted
By: Tenicha Hudson/Staff Reporter
Posted: 4/22/11
The year is concluding and the student government will be planting its last tree of this academic school year today in honor of going green.Jenna Mitchell, a sophomore political science major, said she was glad she became a member of the university development and recycling committee.
"There will be a little green space being in between Klehm and the Life Science Building," Mitchell said.
Zach Samples, a freshman history major with a teacher certificate, said he is glad the Student Senate members made the decision to plant a tree this year.
"As the chair of university development and recycling, it shows how we are committed to going green," Samples said.
Facilities Planning and Management will be in charge of planting the Earth Day tree, Samples said.
"It's a great way to show the campus that student government is all for a green campus," Mitchell said.
The tree-planting ceremony will take place at 1 p.m. today in the South Quad.
Samples said he hopes the tree planting will give students different ideas to go green.
"The Office of Facilities Planning and Management have drawn up the available trees to give us," Samples said.
Mitchell said she believes the South Quad is a great place to have the tree planted because a lot of people hang around in that quad.
The committee will be planting an oak tree.
"The tree will work to beautify the campus that students walk past everyday," Samples said.
There will be a plaque that will have the year of 2010-2011 and say this year's student government co-sponsored the planting.
"The tree benefits us since Eastern Illinois University was known for being one of the greenest campuses," Mitchell said.
Tenicha Hudson can be reached at 581-2812 or tshudson@eiu.edu.
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