Earth Day in the United States takes place every year on 22nd April. The ‘Father of Earth Day’ was senator Gaylord Nelson, who initiated and approved the environmental activities and actions more than 50 years ago back in 1962. He convinced the then president, John F. Kennedy, to go on a tour of the United States in support of environmental issues, although the initial effort failed to spark nationwide concern at the political level sufficient to result in change.
Gaylord did not allow this initial setback to dampen his enthusiasm for the cause, however, and continued his quest for greater environmental concern and actions. In 1970 he proposed a National Earth Day, the result of which was the very first national environmental protest “to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda”. On 22nd April 1970, the first Earth Day protest managed to attract an astounding level of support.
That first Earth Day saw more than 20 million citizens of the United States taking to the streets in order to show their support for the environment and to protest about practices harmful to it.
Even taking into account that the time was rife with such protest movements, the effort nonetheless resulted in a lasting effect on the environment, more awareness of the limited resources of our world, and the fact that our ecosystem is finite and self-contained, with the things that we are putting into the earth, air and water coming back and impacting on us in return.
Jon Huser
