This Tuesday, the 22nd of April, marked the 55th anniversary of Earth Day. Founded in the US in 1970, Earth Day raises awareness of issues surrounding our environment while also celebrating the achievements the movement has already made. Earth Day has been an inspiration to millions who care about our Earth and its resources. Together, we can make a difference.
The First Earth Day
Americans in the 1960s were largely unconcerned about the environmental effects of pollution. Apart from a few notable exceptions, such as Rachel Carson’s 1969 book Silent Spring about the effect of DDT on bird populations, the general public remained largely unaware and uncaring.
Senator Gaylord Nelson, however, had been concerned about the environment for years before the Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969, and following the catastrophe decided it was time to act. His intent was to create a day of college teach-ins and use the energy of student anti-war protests to combat the effects of pollution; he had no idea that in twenty years, the event would become a global movement.
Nelson recruited Harvard graduate student Denis Hayes to organize these original teach-ins. April 22nd was chosen for one simple reason: The date was a weekday that fell in between Spring Break and finals week. Hayes took Nelson’s idea and went a step further, prompting it to the national level. Several groups of various demographics became involved, and thus, the first Earth Day was born.
The original Earth Day of 1970 involved twenty million Americans, or ten percent of the country’s population. People led protests and demonstrations against the impacts of industrialization on both the environment and public health. That first Earth Day was the beginning of the modern environmental movement, and led to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the passing of various laws, including the National Environmental Education Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the Clean Air Act of 1970.
In 1990, exactly twenty years later, Hayes organized the very first global Earth Day. Over 200 million people in more than 140 countries participated, and it has continued ever since.
Figures 1 and 2. Senator Gaylord Nelson and Denis Hayes, the founders of Earth Day.
Earth Day Network
The Earth Day Network, or EDN, provides year-round support to Earth Day’s mission. It believes that everybody should have access to a healthy, sustainable environment and resources. The EDN holds activism campaigns which bring in over one billion people every year – over ten percent of the world’s entire population.
The are three main goals: broaden the meaning of “environment” to include environmentally conscious jobs and schools; diversify the movement to include vulnerable populations, such as low-income communities, in discussions; and mobilize people and communities to become more active in the fight for a healthier planet.
Earth Day takes action toward ten major issues: advocacy, climate change, conservation and biology, education, energy, food and agriculture, green economy, green schools, recycling and waste reduction, and sustainable development. All ten issues play a vital role in keeping our planet healthy.
Figure 3. A group of children holding up a globe.
How You Can Help
This is all very interesting, but what can you actually do? Can you only help the environment on Earth Day? Can you even make a difference at all?
Helping the environment isn’t just limited to April 22nd. There are so many ways to help, no matter the time of year. You can join one of the Earth Day Network’s Initiative Projects. Or, you can take smaller action by reducing the use of plastics, recycling, and buying energy efficient lights and electronics. Try shopping sustainably by using the Seafood Watch site when buying seafood, or Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s PalmOil Scan app for products that use palm oil.
Figure 4. A chart of ways to help protect the planet.
Earth Day is more than just a day. It is not an empty movement, a transient organization, a grand gesture in the face of looming tragedy. Rather, it is a day in which we can gather as one to make a difference through whatever means possible – whether that is the multinational Paris Agreement of 2016 to limit the overall temperature increase of the Earth, the ongoing reforestation of the Canopy Project, or joining a River Cleanup to clear rivers of trash.
There is a Chinese proverb by Lao Tzu, of the 6th century BCE: “A journey of a thousand leagues starts from where your feet stand.” (Wu translation, 1961) You can’t get anywhere if you don’t take that first step. Likewise, you can’t make any difference at all if you don’t even try. Above all, just remember: It only takes a single person to make a difference.
Sources
Header, Figures 1 and 2: https://www.earthday.org/history
Figure 3: https://www.earthday.org/
Figure 4: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ocean/earthday.html
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/earth-day/
https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2025/
https://www.earthday.org/history/
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ocean/earthday.html
https://www.seafoodwatch.org/
https://www.cmzoo.org/conservation/orangutans-palm-oil/palm-oil-scan-mobile-app/
https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement
https://www.earthday.org/campaign/the-canopy-project/
https://www.river-cleanup.org/en/cleanups
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/laozi/
https://terebess.hu/english/tao/wu.html#Kap64
*Published by Eryn Meeker on 4/26/2025*