On the very first Earth Day in 1970,Denis Hayesstood on a level in Central Park , stunned by the number of people who ’d get along to observe the satellite . Now in his seventy , Hayes remembers it was like looking at the ocean—“you could n’t see where the sea of the great unwashed ended . ” Crowd estimation reached more than a million people .
For Hayes , who is now board chair of the internationalEarth Day web , it was the climax of a yr ’s worth of work . As an urban bionomics graduate student at Harvard University , he ’d volunteered to avail organize a small initiative by Wisconsin senatorGaylord Nelson . Nelson was horrified by the1969 crude oil spillin Santa Barbara , California , and wanted to stir awareness about environmental issues by holding teaching events alike to those being held by polite rights and anti - war activists .
Senator Nelson saw a growing disconnect between the concept of progress and the estimate of American well - being , Hayes tells Mental Floss . “ There was a sense that America was well-heeled and getting good , but at the same sentence , the strain in the land was like to the air today in China , Mexico City , or New Delhi , " Hayes says . " river were see on ardor . Lakes were unswimmable . ”
Nelson ’s plan for these environmental teach - ins was for Speaker to educate college students about environmental offspring . But he had no one to unionize them . So Hayes , Nelson ’s lone volunteer , took control on a interior stratum , organizing teach - ins at Harvard first and then across the U.S. Initially , the answer was lukewarm at best . “ Rather rapidly it became clear that this was n’t a hot take at college and universities in 1969 , ” Hayes tell . “ We had a state of war raging , and civil rights were getting very aroused after the Nixon election . ”
Still , both Hayes and Nelson noticed an influx of mail to the senator ’s office from women with young family worried about the environment . So rather of focusing on colleges , the two decide to take a dissimilar tactics , produce effect with residential area - based system across the country , Hayes says . They also decided that rather than a serial of teach - ins , they ’d control a single , nationwide teach - in on the same twenty-four hour period . They called it Earth Day , and set a date : April 22 .
Hayes now had a squad of untried adult working for the grounds , and he himself had dribble out of school to tackle it full time . Long before social medium , the project began to disseminate virally . “ It just resonate , ” he say . Women and minor environmental - advocacy groups really hooked onto the theme , and word spread by mouth and by information draw between member of the group .
Courtesy of Denis Hayes
With the cooperation and involution of grassroots radical and volunteers across the country , and a few lawgiver who hold up the initiative , Hayes ’ exploit culminated in the outcome on April 22 , 1970 .
Hayes startle the day in Washington , D.C. , where he and the faculty were based . There was a mass meeting and resist on the National Mall , though by that degree Hayes had flown to New York , where Mayor John Lindsay provided a microscope stage in Central Park . function of Fifth Avenue were shut down for the events , which include Earth - oriented celebrations , protests , and speeches by renown . Some of those attending the event even attack nearby cars for causing pollution . After the rally , Hayes fly to Chicago for a small event .
“ We had a mother wit that it was going to be big , but when the day actually come home , the bunch were so much bigger than anyone had experience before , ” Hayes said . The consequence drew grassroots militant working on a variety of issues — Agent Orange , confidential information paint in miserable urban neighbourhood , save up the heavyweight — and fostered a sense of unity among them .
“ There were multitude worrying about these [ environmental ] issue before Earth Day , but they did n’t believe they had anything in coarse with one another , " Hayes aver . " We took all those individual string and wove them together into the cloth of modern environmentalism . ”
Hayes and his team spent the summertime getting tear - gassed at protests against the American invasion of Cambodia , which President Nixon authorise just six Clarence Shepard Day Jr. after Earth Day . But by fall , the team refocused on environmental issues — and elections . They target a “ dirty dozen ” members of Congress up for re - election who had terrible environmental record book , and fight for candidates who defend environmental causes to run against them . They defeated seven out of 12 .
“ It was a very poorly fund but high - energy effort , ” Hayes says . “ That send the content to Congress that it was n’t just a bunch of people out frolicking in the fair weather planting daisies and picking up bedding material . This really had political chop . ”
The early ' 70s became a golden old age for environmental topic ; impulse from the Earth Day social movement spawned the creation of theClean Air Act , theClean Water Act , theSafe Drinking Water Act , theEndangered Species Act , theMarine Mammal Protection Act , theEnvironmental Education Act(which was ab initio passed in 1970 and revived in 1990 ) , and theEnvironmental Protection Agency .
“ We completely changed the theoretical account within which America does business , more than any other period in history with the possible exception of the New Deal , ” Hayes says . “ But our little revolution was land entirely from the grassroots up . ”
In 1990 , Hayes was at it again . He organized the first outside Earth Day , with about 200 million participant across more than 140 country . Since then it ’s become a world phenomenon .
Despite its popularity , though , we still have a long way to go , even if the improvements Hayes campaign for have made these offspring feel more remote . Hayes remark that everything they were fighting in the ' 70s was something palpable — something you could see , taste , olfactory sensation , or touch . Climate variety can seem much less real — and harder to battle — to the ordinary soul who is n’t yet face with its effects .
Hayes also note that multitude have become more skeptical of scientific discipline . “ Historically , that has not been a job in the United States . But today science is under onrush . ”
He discourage , “ This [ anti - science sentiment ] is something that could deprive the next 50 generations and create really farseeing - term desolation — that harms not only American wellness , but also American business , American labor , and American prognosis . ”
