It's been 25 years since the first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. Looking back, many accomplishments have been made for the good of the environment, most notably with the successes of the first Earth Day and its 20-year anniversary.
Former U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson is the Wisconsin Democrat who established the first Earth Day. In an interview with E magazine, Nelson points out that he was at one time the only senator with an environmental staff member. Twenty-five years later, all 535 members of Congress have a person working on environmental issues.
Nelson is still involved with Earth Day events, including Earth Day 1995.
"My basic message is that we should try to build a sustainable country and achieve population control," Nelson said.
Nelson recruited Denis Hayes, then a 25-year old law student at Harvard University, to help organize the first Earth Day. Events included a large number of educational gatherings, such as teach-ins, at universities and schools across the country.
Other events on that day included citizens cutting up their oil company credit cards for television cameras and students gathering at Boston's Logan Airport protesting the SST, America's super-sonic transport. The SST was never built.
About 20 million Americans participated in events for Earth Day 1970, and even Congress recessed early to allow members to take part in activities.
John Baldwin, associate professor in the Planning, Public Policy and Management Department and director of the University of Oregon's Institute for a Sustainable Environment said he was greatly affected by the first Earth Day.
"With attempts to roll backwards what progress has been made on some environmental fronts and with the deterioration of resources," he said, "it's time to redouble our resolve to tackle these problems efficiently, and appreciate the beauty and bounty of our environment."
Baldwin was attending Jamestown Community College in Jamestown, New York at the time. About 200 students were involved in a march celebrating Earth Day. A teach-in was also sponsored, at which science students discussed environmental problems and solutions.
Baldwin remembers these events as catalysts for him to pursue a career in environmental biology. A year later, he did some of the original water pollution clean-up work on Lake Erie. In 1972, he canoed the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland after it caught on fire, taking water samples.
Important victories for the environment resulted from the first Earth Day in 1970. The Environmental Protection Agency was created, and the ground-breaking Clean Air Act of 1970 was passed by Congress. That act phased out lead in gasoline and reduced auto emissions.
Environmental activists also played a role in causing the military to stop spraying Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals in Vietnam.
Between the first Earth Day and the 20-year anniversary, interest in the event dwindled.
In 1990, a worldwide celebration was planned to relive the success of the original Earth Day.
Denis Hayes, who helped organize the first Earth Day, also led the planning of the 20-year anniversary. This time, the goal was to involve societies worldwide and help Earth Day become a global event.
Earth Day 1990 may have been the largest global event ever in terms of the number of people united for a common cause. The New York Times reported on April 23, 1993 that "by day's end organizers of the sequel to Earth Day 1970 said 200 million people in 140 nations had taken part in the largest grassroots demonstration in history."
Hayes described the state of the environment on Earth Day 1990, in Audubon magazine. "The greenhouse effect is now beyond dispute," he said. "Species are disappearing faster than they were 20 years ago. Nineteen years after Earth Day, we are still a throwaway society. Somehow, we need to grab the public consciousness, and we need to grab our political leaders and say, `These things are serious.'"
Hayes is now chairman of the board of Green Seal, an organization that educates consumers about products, and co-chairman of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economics.
One of the greatest success stories to come after Earth Day 1990 has been an increase in recycling. Will Nixon of E magazine notes that the number of American communities with recycling programs increased from 600 in 1988 to around 6,600 now.
Americans have also continued to join the ranks of environmental organizations. Membership in such groups as the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and the National Wildlife Federation has surged.
For example, according to Rolling Stone, the Sierra Club's membership tripled in the 1980s, and by 1990 there were about 10 million dues-paying members of various environmental organizations in the U.S.
Also by Earth Day 1990, U.S. News and World Report notes that the amount of protected federal parklands has significantly expanded. In Alaska, 45 million acres were added. Another 2 million acres of protected land was added throughout the rest of the United States.
As Earth Day's 25-year anniversary approaches, successes of past Earth Days can serve as models for this year and for future events.