Earth Day Hits Middle Age; Time for a Midlife Crisis?

It’s rather fitting. Earth Day turns 40 today, entering that oft-dreaded middle age when reevaluation becomes a way of life, past memories resurface and we start to worry whether our team will win a championship in our lifetime (Yankees fans excluded). Now Earth Day 2010 is upon us, and all the uncertainty, angst and apprehension that has followed us through 40 years of environmental activism is as tangible as ever.

Climate change is 40 years closer, any environmental agreement in Congress seems 40 years away and we’re nearly 40 parts-per-million past the 350 ppm that scientists say carbon levels must fall below to avoid the worst effects of global warming. It seems fair to say that 2010 is a big year for Earth Day.

Earth Day 1970: The Birth of the Environmental Movement

40 is a good time to look back at where we come from. As a species we seem mired in a mid-life crisis — a turning point, a pivot, and a time for focus on our elliptical path.

Earth Day was born on April 22, 1970. It is the child of US Senator Gaylord Nelson and was originally conceived as an environmental teach-in. Nelson hoped that a national teach-in day would show the government just how stressed out and fed up Americans were with the state of their local environment. The first Earth Day movement utilized student apprehension and activism over the war in Vietnam as a catalyst to great effect.

Longstanding activist Denis Hayes was the national campaign coordinator for that first Earth Day — sort of a midwife for the moment that became the movement we know today. He recently told Voice of America:

“In Los Angeles, for simply breathing, it was the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. We had rivers that were catching on fire, lakes that were dying. The national emblem the American eagle was on the verge of extinction.”

Los Angeles was not alone, and Earth Day 1970 was a great success; some 20 million Americans participated in the grassroots event, including students from primary schools to universities. Speedy action was taken by Congress in its wake. The Clean Air Act was passed and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was formed. Earth Day 1970 is widely regarded as the birth of the environmental movement, a movement that has spread to hundreds of nations and cultures.

By 1990, Earth Day, like a “Flintstone Kid,” was strong and growing. Earth Day 20 saw the celebrations grow to 200 million people in 141 countries and was a major boon to recycling efforts around the world. Personally, as a child of roughly 12, it is the first Earth Day I remember celebrating in school and was in fact the first I remember hearing about this new movement called “recycling” (my favorite recycling adjective “curbside” was still a few years in the making).

By 2007, 1 billion people were in on the celebrations and the activities. So what does 2010 portend?

Earth Day 40

Earth Day 2010 is a momentous occasion, especially here in the United States, where times are uncertain at best. Here the focus is about getting some sort of action out of Congress. That was a major success for Earth Day 1 and there’s no doubt it is a major goal for organizers of Earth Day 40. The big difference today is our global society. While in 1970, the focus was more about local environment, today the word must be spread far and wide, across wired and wireless connections to every corner of the globe.

Today we have the Earth Day Network. Founded by Denis Hayes, the network connects over 19,000 organizations in 192 countries. It works year-round with thousands of domestic groups and hundreds of thousands of educators to spread the word and facilitate action on local, national and global environmental issues. In the wake of the anti-climactic UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen last December, I dare say we can expect one of the biggest Earth Day celebrations in history this year as citizens around the world, Americans especially, push for quick government action on climate change.

What Can We Do to Help?

We can all unite to make Earth Day 2010 a real turning point in history.

First of all, go to an event! If there’s something happening in your community, stop by. These days there’s almost no shortage of things to do. Join a group planting trees. Help clean beaches, parks, sidewalks, streets, medians, parking lots, anything — even our cleanest cities have a surplus of trash lying around.

In the home, explore conservation measures like composting, recycling, reducing, reusing. Try not to throw anything away on Earth Day. It sounds difficult, and it probably is, but be sure to at least think about how that used sour cream container could be useful containing something else or how used cardboard from toilet tissue rolls can hold soil for seed sprouts for the garden. There is an endless list of little things and habits you could use Earth Day 2010 to get into. Really. Just Google it.

• Don’t drive for a day.
• Change your light bulbs.
• Install a programmable thermostat.
• Shake hands with somebody.
• Go Solar!

Whatever greens your palette.

If you don’t have the time to join an organized event or go to a rally, grab a bag and stroll down your block picking up litter as you go. Take the kids. Hey, and if all goes according to Earth Day plan, there may be a shortage of traffic tomorrow and you won’t have to look both ways before crossing the street (although you’d better do it just to be safe).

Here are some other Earth Day resources:

1. Earth Day Network – What you can do
2. EPA – Earth Day
3. Beyond Earth Day
4. History of Earth Day Source: Wikipedia

Make it one to remember!

Photo Credit: Fresh Start, Natural History Museum, & Yuku

Posted on April 22nd in Solar News by Dan.