Kat Tsvirkunova
campuses to the national media and convinced Pete McCloskey, a conservative Republican Congressman, to join him as co-chair. They appointed a young activist, Denis Hayes, to coordinate the campus teach-ins. They also chose April 22, a weekday between Spring Break and Final Exams, to maximize student participation. Hayes assembled a national team of 85 people to support activities around the country, and the campaign quickly grew to include a diverse variety of associations, religious groups, and others.
They named it Earth Day, which drew national media coverage and quickly gained traction around the world. Earth History Day prompted 20 million Americans, 10% of the country’s population at the Gaylord Nelson, a Wisconsin junior time, to take to the streets, parks, and senator, had long been worried about the auditoriums to protest the effects of 150 country’s failing climate. years of industrial development, which Nelson was inspired by student anhad left an increasing legacy of severe ti-war demonstrations organized in the human health consequences. late 1960s and decided to combine the Thousands of colleges and universities momentum of student anti-war protests organized protests against the deteriorawith a growing public awareness of air tion of the environment, and there were and water pollution. Nelson pitched massive coast-to-coast rallies in cities, the concept for a teach-in on college towns, and communities. Similarly, groups that had been fighting individually against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife united on Earth Day around these shared common values. The first Earth Day in 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, urban dwellers and farmers, business and labor leaders. By the end of the year, the United States Environmental Protection Agency had been established, as well as the passage of other groundbreaking environmental legislation, such as the National Environmental Education Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the Clean Air Act. Two years later, Congress passed the Clean Water Act. Another year after that, Congress passed the Endangered Species Act and, soon after, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. These laws have protected millions of men, women, and children from disease and death and have protected hundreds of species from extinction. As 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders approached Denis Hayes to organize a major campaign for the planet. This time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in ov at v 141 countries and lifting environmental o ng E issues onto the world stage. Earth Day a lin 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efo P By forts worldwide and helped pave the way t Ar for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, a major conference that aimed to reconcile worldwide economic development with the protection of the environment. It also prompted 16 HIGHLANDER FEATURE
Earth Day every day
