That was the first Earth Day. Did you join in with all the celebrations, plant a tree, pick up trash, begin to recycle, go birdwatching, and learn new ways to make our planet a healthier place? Please share!


Here's the rest of the April newsletter's Earth Day article --

In 1970, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson proclaimed April 22 to be “Earth Day.” More than 20 million people participated in this spectacularly well-publicized event that gave birth to the modern environmental movement.

The counterculture plus demonstrations against the Viet Nam War attracted students who picked up environmental messages from rock lyrics. New York City's Mayor John V. Lindsay put the full weight of his influence behind a mindboggling Earth Day celebration. For two hours, Fifth Avenue was closed to traffic between 14th Street and 59th Street, bringing midtown Manhattan to a virtual standstill. Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and many other major American cities were also scenes of Earth Day rallies. People were finally realizing that the Earth's resources are finite.

During the months that followed, Senator Nelson pushed through U.S. environmental legislation that included the preservation of the Appalachian Trail, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act. The EPA was founded in December of that year and gave the federal government more clout to curb environmental decay in the United States.

Today Earth Day is officially celebrated on April 22 around the world with marches, rallies, concerts, festivals, street fairs, clean-ups, planting and other environmental events with over 22,000 partners in 192 countries. Earth Day is unofficially celebrated every day of the year as residents of communities all over the world join together to solve local issues such as defective landfills, hazardous medical waste, polluted rivers and streams, littering, and noise pollution.

Celebrate Earth Day this year by learning how to identify plants and trees of all kinds while using this sticky Identifying Plants in Gardening & Plants.

Remember –
Every day is Earth Day, wet or dry, cold or hot. Let's help save the planet –
it's the only one we've got!

Despite living in Berkeley CA in the late 60s and being pretty crunchy, I was back in Boston on 4/22/70, probably working at some dreary job and oblivious to Earth Day. That was a Wednesday?

Kathleen Rogers, president of Washington, D.C.-based Earth Day Network, which was founded by the original organizers of Earth Day, said April 22, 1970, was chosen for the first Earth Day in part because it fell on a Wednesday, the best part of the week to encourage a large turnout for the environmental rallies held across the country.

"It worked out perfectly, because everybody was at work and they all left," she said.

From Earth Day Facts: When It Is, How It Began, What to Do

Where was I? -- have been trying to remember.

Since I had my first child later that year in mid-November, I must have been newly pregnant, in my first trimester, and throwing up in some bathroom somewhere. I do vaguely remember the hoopla surrounding the first Earth Day, but didn't participate in any events, since I was too busy working for State Farm and keeping house (and dreaming about chubby little cheeks).

At the time I was in private school in 8th grade, and I remember having special projects and observances. The school actually went "all out" - we had seminars on zero population growth (which as the rage back then), malthusian "doomsday" predictions, and water & air pollution ( I can't remember of Lake Erie was considered "dead" at that point or not), and did some trash pick up. It was a big deal.

LOL. My dad was only a month old.