National Earth Day

In January 1969, an oil platform off Santa Barbara blew out and dumped three million gallons of crude into the Pacific. Beaches were black; birds were coated; TV footage ran nationwide. Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson watched the coverage and had an idea: what if environmental concern got the same mass-rally treatment that had mobilized students for civil rights and Vietnam? He proposed a nationwide "teach-in" on the environment.

April 22, 1970 was the date. On that Wednesday, 20 million Americans, 10% of the population, participated in some form of environmental activity: rallies, cleanups, lectures, teach-ins, demonstrations. It was the largest civic event in American history up to that point. It wasn't political in the partisan sense; it was broadly American.

The legislative response was swift and historic. Within eight months, Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency. Within three years, Congress passed the Clean Air Act (1970), the Clean Water Act (1972), and the Endangered Species Act (1973), the legal foundation of American environmentalism. All three are widely credited to the mobilization that Earth Day created.

Today, Earth Day is observed in 193 countries. The Paris Climate Agreement was opened for signature on Earth Day 2016. Activism has evolved, from teach-ins to Climate Strike marches, from "reduce, reuse, recycle" to "systems change, not climate change." The urgency has grown. The basic premise, that collective action can change environmental policy, still holds.

Four things that actually move the needle (more than reusable straws):

Six countries, six versions of the same impulse: