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I have investigated the national use of the name Earth Day. I can document from the publication "Earth Day- The Beginning" published by the national staff of the Environmental Teach-In in May of 1970 and the April 22 1970 issue of the

Earth Day

Earth Day is the name coined by Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1962. He had proposed the name in discussions with JFK and his brother Robert Kennedy for a national day like Arbor Day to focus on the environment. By the summer of 1969 the idea for Earth Day was extended into one which would emulate the popular Teach-ins against the War in Vietnam. Earth Day would be an Environmental Teach-in. Earth Day is now celebrated world wide on April 22.

Ecology Flag

Earth Day Flag, according to Flags of the World, the Ecology Flag was created by cartoonist R. Cobb, and was published for the first time on October 25, 1969. The flag was patterned after the U.S. flag with thirteen stripes.

History of Earth Day

In September 1969, at a conference in Seattle, Washington, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment. Senator Nelson first proposed the nationwide environmental teach-in to thrust the environment onto the national agenda.” "It was a gamble," he recalls, "but it worked." Five months before the first April 22 Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the rising tide of environmental events::

"Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam...a national day of observance of environmental problems...is being planned for next spring...when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in'...coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned...."

Senator Nelson set his staff to organize the national event and on April 22, 1970 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. The Senator's Legislative Assistant Linda Billings and her youthful staff had organized massive coast-to-coast rallies, she was helped in her efforts by graduate student Denis Hayes (hired as the coordinator) who was the college age public face of the event. 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 were able to take advantage of the media event to present a united front.

In the Spring of 1970 the focus of most young adults and the energy of progressive movements was opposition to the War in Vietnam. Not only was Earth Day not the major focus of most of these groups, Earth Day's adherents and publications were characterized as elitist and a distraction from a united oppostion to the Vietnamese War. Earth Day was successful but it would be almost a decade before it became (in retrospect) perceived as a pivotable event. The presidency of Jimmy Carter demonstrated the political power of an environmentally sensitive constituency.

Mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting the status of environmental issues onto the world stage. Earth Day on April 22 in 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.

As the millennium approached, Denis Hayes, whose career has remained focused on political advocacy for environmental issues, arranged for another campaign, this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. The April 22 Earth Day in 2000 combined the big-picture feistiness of the first Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990. For 2000, Earth Day had the Internet to help link activists around the world. By the time April 22 rolled around, 5,000 environmental groups around the world were on board, reaching out to hundreds of millions of people in a record 184 countries. Events varied: A talking drum chain traveled from village to village in Gabon, Africa, for example, while hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., USA.

Earth Day 2000 sent the message loud and clear that citizens the world 'round wanted quick and decisive action on clean energy. Earth Day 2007 was one of the largest Earth Days to date, with an estimated billion people participating in the activities in thousands of places like Kiev, Ukraine; Caracas, Venezuela; Tuvalu; Manila, Philippines; Togo; Madrid, Spain; London; and New York.

Growing Eco-activism before Earth Day 1970

The 1960s had been a very dynamic period for ecology in the US, in both theory and practice. It was in the mid-1960s that Congress passed the sweeping Wilderness Act, and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas asked, "Who speaks for the trees?" Pre-1960 grassroots activism against DDT in Nassau County, NY, had inspired Rachel Carson to write her shocking bestseller Silent Spring (1962).

Earth Day 1970

Gaylord Nelson

Responding to widespread environmental degradation, Gaylord Nelson, a United States Senator from Wisconsin, called for an environmental teach-in, or Earth Day, to be held on April 22 1970. Over 20 million people participated that year, and Earth Day is now observed each year on April 22 by more than 500 million people and national governments in 175 countries. Senator Nelson, an environmental activist, took a leading role in organizing the celebration, hoping to demonstrate popular political support for an environmental agenda. He modeled it on the highly effective Vietnam War protests of the time.

Denis Hayes

Senator Nelson hired Denis Hayes, a Harvard University graduate student, as the national coordinator of activities. Hayes said Senator Nelson wanted Earth Day to "bypass the traditional political process." Garrett DuBell compiled and edited The Environmental Handbook the first guide to the Environmental Teach-In. Its symbol was created by R.Cobb.

The Results of Earth Day 1970

Earth Day 2007 at San Diego City College in San Diego, California.

Earth Day proved popular in the United States and around the world. The first Earth Day had participants and celebrants in two thousand colleges and universities, roughly ten thousand primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of communities across the United States. More importantly, it "brought 20 million Americans out into the spring sunshine for peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform."

Senator Nelson stated that Earth Day "worked" because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. 20 million demonstrators and thousands of schools and local communities participated. He directly credited the first Earth Day with persuading U.S. politicians that environmental legislation had a substantial, lasting constituency. Many important laws were passed by the Congress in the wake of the 1970 Earth Day, including the Clean Air Act, laws to protect drinking water, wild lands and the ocean, and the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Now observed in 175 countries,and coordinated by the nonprofit Earth Day Network, according to whom Earth Day is now "the largest secular holiday in the world, celebrated by more than a half billion people every year." Environmental groups have sought to make Earth Day into a day of action which changes human behavior and provokes policy changes.

Earth Week

Many cities extend the Earth Day celebration to be an entire week, usually starting on April 16, and ending on Earth Day, April 22nd.

See also

• World Environment Day
• Earth Hour
• Equinox Earth Day

External links

• Earth Day Event Calendar at the EnviroLink Network
• Celebrate Earth Day How to Celebrate Earth Day from WikiHow
• Earth Day at Dhammakaya Temple
• International Earth Day - The Official Site - Spring/Vernal Equinox
• Earth Society Foundation - Official organization arranging annual equinox Earth Day celebration at the United Nations
• Earth Day Network - Coordinating worldwide events for Earth Day.
• United States Earth Day - The U.S. government's Earth Day site.
• Earth Day Canada - The Canadian Official Site for Earth Day
• Keep America Beautiful - Keep America Beautiful holds Earth Day cleanup activities in communities nationwide. The organization launched the famous Crying Indian campaign on Earth Day, 1971.
• North Norfolk Coast Earth Day Event - Exhibition of environmental technologies and advice
• YouTube Earth Day Contest - Earth Day Video Contest on YouTube

Category:March observances Category:April observances Category:Environmental awareness days Category:History of environmentalism Category:Secular holidays Category:United Nations days Category:Recurring events established in 1970