Celebrate Earth Day 2005
Join one of many 35th anniversary festivals
Courtesy of the Earthday Network
In 1970, 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.
But Earth Day 1970, turned all that around.
Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nationwide environmental protest “to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda.” “It was a gamble,” he recalls, “but it worked.”
On April 22, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies.
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 and Endangered Species acts.
Sen. Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest honor given to ivilians in the United States – for his role as Earth Day founder.
Today, Earth Day is celebrated by more than half a billion people each year, making it the largest secular holiday in the world.
Courtesy of the Earth Day Network: (202) 518-0044, www.earthday.net
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