FREE ESSAY ON EARTHDAY

EARTHDAY

Earth Day
Earth Day is April 22. Earth Day is most often observed by the media, hundreds of local
groups and noted on calendars on April 22. Many people also observe Earth Week and Earth
Month. Since most events and festivals need to take place on a weekend, Earth Day is
observed on the weekends before and after April 22. Others also observe it on March 21,
the Vernal Equinox or on World Environment Day, June 6. Remember, that really, every day
is an Earth Day - we just need to live our lives that way. 
History of Earth Day
For years prior to Earth Day it had been troubling to me that the critical matter of the
state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of our country. The
President, the Congress, the economic power structure of the nation, and the press paid
almost no attention to this issue, which is of such staggering import to our future. It
was clear that until we somehow got this matter into the political arena, until it became
a part of the national political dialogue, not much would ever be achieved. The puzzling
challenge was to think up some dramatic event that would focus national attention on the
environment. Finally, in 1963 an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch
to get the environment into the political limelight once and for all. 
That idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give national visibility to this issue by
going on a nationwide conservation tour, spelling out in dramatic language the serious
and deteriorating condition of our environment, and proposing a comprehensive agenda to
begin addressing the problem. No President had ever made such a tour, and I was satisfied
this would finally force the issue onto the nation's political agenda. The President like
the idea and began his conservation tour in the fall of 1963. Senators Hubert Humphrey,
Gene McCarthy, Joe Clark and I accompanied the President on the first leg of his trip to
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin,, and Minnesota. For many reasons the tours didn't achieve what I
had hoped for - it did not succeed in making the environment a national political issue.
However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day. 
While the President's tour was a disappointment, I continued to hope for some idea that
would thrust the environment into the political mainstream. Six years would pass before
the idea for Earth Day occurred to me in late July 1969, while on a conservation speaking
tour out West. 
At the time there was a great deal of turmoil on the college campuses over the Vietnam
War. Protests, call anti-war teach-ins, were being widely held on campuses across the
nation. On a flight from Santa Barbara to the University of California/Berkeley, I read
an article on the teach-ins, and it suddenly occurred to me, why not have a nationwide
teach-in on the environment? That was the origin of Earth Day. 
I returned to Washington in early August, raised the funds to get Earth Day started, and
prepared letters to 50 governors and to the mayors of all the major cities explaining the
event and requesting that they issue Earth Day Proclamations. I sent an Earth Day article
to all of the college newspapers explaining the event and one to Scholastic Magazine,
which went to most of our grade and high schools. 
In a speech given in Seattle in September, I formally announced that there would be a
national environmental teach-in sometime in the spring of 1970. The wire services carried
the story nationwide. The response was dramatic. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams,
letters and Telephone inquiries poured in from all over the nation. Using my Senate
staff, I ran Earth Day activities out of my office. By December, the movement had
expanded so rapidly that it became necessary to open an office in Washington to serve as
a National Clearinghouse for Earth Day inquiries and activities, at which point I hired
Denis Hayes and others to coordinate the effort. 
Earth Day achieved what I had hoped for. The objective was to get a nationwide
demonstration of concern for the environment so large that it would shake the political
arena. It was a gamble, but it worked. An estimated twenty million people participated in
peaceful demonstrations all across the country. Ten thousand grade schools and high
schools, two thousand colleges, and one thousand communities were involved. 
In was a truly astonishing grassroots explosion, The people cared and Earth Day became
the first opportunity they ever had to join in a nationwide demonstration to send a big
message to the politicians - a message to tell them to wake up and do something. 
It worked because of the spontaneous, enthusiastic response at the grassroots. Nothing
like it had ever happened before. While our organizing on college campuses was very well
done, the thousands of events in our schools and communities were self-generated at the
local level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize the ten thousand grade
schools and high schools and one thousand communities that participated. They simply
organized themselves. That was the remarkable thing that became Earth Day. 
Don't ever forget, if you want to move the nation to make hard decisions as political
issues, the grassroots is the source of power. With it you can do anything - without it,
nothing. 
If we are going to move the nation to an environmentally sustainable economy, you and
that young generation right behind you are going to have to do it - and I think you will.

Earth Day Every Year 
Earth Day went for twenty years until Denis Hayes saw both the need and the opportunity
to expand the scope of Earth Day internationally. For the 20th anniversary, Earth Day was
celebrated by more than 200 million people in 141 countries. 
A new organization, the Earth Day Network, has emerged from the seeds that were planted
in 1990. The Earth Day Network has been founded by and for the grass roots activists who
have taken Earth Day to heart in their locales on an annual basis. In 1994 alone, more
than one million individuals attended Earth Day events and thousands of volunteers
participated in projects in all fifty states. 
The mission of the Earth Day Network is to increase awareness, responsibility and action
toward a clean, healthy future for all living things using Earth Day as a catalyst. The
Network's focus is people. The Network's commitment is environmental. 
Affiliated groups of the Earth Day Network include: Earth Day Canada, Earth Day New York,
Earth Day Illinois, San Diego Earth Day, Earth Day Northwest, Earth Day Hawaii,
EarthWays, St. Louis, Clean Air Council,/Philadelphia Earth Day '95, Earth Day Greater
Boston, Stamford Connecticut Earth Day, Earth Day Georgia, EnviroBaldwin, Fairhope,
Alabama, Ecology Action/Earth Day Austin Texas, Michiana Earth Day, Earth Day Arizona,
Northern Nevada Earth Day/Environmental Leadership, Reno NV, GLOBE Ecology Coalition,
Long Beach CA. 
In addition to formal affiliates, the Earth Day Network supports and works with other
local volunteer groups around the country. Groups receiving support in 1995 have
included: Earth Service, Inc., Los Angeles, Our Planet Dallas TX, Friends of Sugar Creek,
Crawfordsville, IN, Eco-Kansas City, Community Recycling Center, Champaign IL, New
Bedford MA Earth Day, and Citizens for a Better South Florida, Miami. 
The Earth Day Network is working with other organizations throughout the U.S. Please
inquire about contacts in your area. 
Network Affiliate agreements, Sponsorship policies and Earth Day Organizing Surveys (to
list Earth Day activities as part of theannual events list) are available by request. 
If the environment is a fad, then it's going to be our last fad . . .We are building a
movement, a movement with a broad base, a movement which transcends political boundaries.
It is a movement that values people more than technology, people more than political
boundaries, people more than profit. April 22, 1970, Denis Hayes, organizer of the first
Earth Day and Chair of Earth Day Northwest.