Earth Day is an annual holiday, celebrated on April 22, on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. In 2013 the day is 43 years old. It is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network,[1] and is celebrated in more than 192 countries every year. [2] In 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco, the date proposed was March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of nature’s equipoise was later sanctioned in a Proclamation signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations.
A month later a separate Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award in recognition of his work. [3] While this April 23 Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations. [4][5] Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.
The first Earth Day family had participants and celebrants in two thousand colleges and universities, roughly ten thousand primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of communities across the United States. More importantly, it “brought 20 million Americans out into the spring sunshine for peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform. [6] It now is observed in 192 countries, and coordinated by the nonprofit Earth Day Network, chaired by the first Earth Day 1970 organizer Denis Hayes, according to whom Earth Day is now “the largest secular holiday in the world, celebrated by more than a billion people every year. “[7] Environmental groups have sought to make Earth Day into a day of action which changes human behavior and provokes policy changes. ]Earth Day 1970 in New York City In the winter of 1969-1970, a group of students met at Columbia University to hear Denis Hayes talk about his plans for Earth Day.
The Essay on The Day Earth Moved
The day earth moved – By Zara Rescuers struggled to reach survivors on Saturday morning as Japan reeled after an earthquake and tsunami struck in deadly tandem. The 8.9 magnitude earthquake set off a devastating tsunami that sent walls of water washing over coastal cities in the north. Concern mounted over possible radiation leaks from two nuclear plants near the earthquake zone. The death toll ...
Among the group were Fred Kent, Pete Grannis, and Kristin and William Hubbard. This New York group agreed to head up the New York City part of the national movement. Fred Kent took the lead in renting an office and recruiting volunteers. “The big break came when Mayor Lindsay agreed to shut down Fifth Avenue for the event. A giant cheer went up in the office on that day,” according to Kristin Hubbard (now Kristin Alexandre).
‘From that time on we used Mayor Lindsay’s offices and even his staff. I was Speaker Coordinator but had tremendous help from Lindsay staffer Judith Crichton. In addition to shutting down Fifth Avenue, Mayor John Lindsay made Central Park available for Earth Day. The crowd was estimated as more than one million—by far the largest in the nation. Since Manhattan was also the home of NBC, CBS, ABC, the New York Times, Time, and Newsweek, it provided the best possible anchor for national coverage from their reporters throughout the country. Edmund Muskiespeaking to an estimated 40-60,000 at Fairmount Park, Philadelphia on Earth Day, 1970 U.
S. Senator Edmund Muskie was the keynote speaker on Earth Day in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. Other notable attendees included consumer protection activist and presidential candidate Ralph Nader; Landscape Architect Ian McHarg; Nobel prize-winning Harvard Biochemist, George Wald; U. S. Senate Minority Leader, Hugh Scott; and poet, Allen Ginsberg. Photos, video, and other previously unpublished information are available to the public at EarthWeek1970.
The official logo of the Mount EverestEarth Day 20 International Peace Climb Mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting the status of environmental issues onto the world stage, Earth Day activities in 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Unlike the first Earth Day in 1970, this 20th Anniversary was waged with stronger marketing tools, greater access to television and radio, and multimillion-dollar budgets. 10] Two separate groups formed to sponsor Earth Day events in 1990: The Earth Day 20 Foundation, assembled by Edward Furia (Project Director of Earth Week in 1970), and Earth Day 1990, assembled by Denis Hayes (National Coordinator for Earth Day 1970).
The Essay on Earth Day and Human Evolution: The Humbling of Humans
The celebration of Earth Day marks a stage in the development of human global awareness and thus an important step, however small or tentative, in sustained human evolution. Earth Day is all about us, as a specie, trying to reconnect with the environment that has allowed us to evolve and continues to provides us with the spatial and material context within which we continuously learn and thus ...
Senator Gaylord Nelson, the original founder of Earth Day, was honorary chairman for both groups. The two did not combine forces over disagreements about leadership of combined organization and incompatible structures and strategies. 10] Among the disagreements, key Earth Day 20 Foundation organizers were critical of Earth Day 1990 for including on their boardHewlett Packard, a company that at the time was the second-biggest emitter of chlorofluorocarbons in Silicon Valley and refused to switch to alternative solvents. [10] In terms of marketing, Earth Day 20 had a grassroots approach to organizing and relied largely on locally based groups like the National Toxics Campaign, a Boston-based coalition of 1,000 local groups concerned with industrial pollution.
Earth Day 1990 employed strategies including focus group testing, direct mail fund raising, and email marketing. 10] The Earth Day 20 Foundation highlighted its April 22 activities in George, Washington, near the Columbia River with a live satellite phone call with members of the historic Earth Day 20 International Peace Climb who called from their base camp on Mount Everest to pledge their support for world peace and attention to environmental issues. [11] The Earth Day 20 International Peace Climb was led by Jim Whittaker, the first American to summit Mt. Everest (many years earlier), and marked the first time in history that mountaineers from the United States, Soviet Union, and China had roped together to climb a mountain, let alone.
The Essay on Jack London And Modern Day Environmentalist Groups
Jack london and modern day environmentalist groups We shall never understand the natural environment until we see it as a living organism. Land can be healthy or sick, fertile or barren, rich or poor, lovingly nurtured or bled white. Our present attitudes and laws governing the ownership and use of land represent an abuse of the concept of private property... Today you can murder land for private ...
