Earth Day: An enduring movement

By Phil Hough
Reader Contributor

In the 1960s and 1970s, political and cultural movements rose up to challenge and change society. These mass movements gave rise to iconic protests and demonstrations. This was participatory democracy in action. The original Earth Day was one of the most successful. It had an immediate impact. And it created enduring change, which continues to this day. 

Let’s put it all into some context. 

Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of our democracy. Democracy dies without it. Free speech reveals profound differences that exist between “we the people.” By the 1960s, many segments of our society were discovering their voice for the first time. 

The 1960s saw drastic changes in all manner of expression, including hairstyles, fashion, art and music. There was a great cultural awakening. Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport folk festival in 1965. Music would never be the same.

The sexual revolution, women’s liberation, a celebration of the culture of psychedelic drugs all challenged and changed societal norms. The musical Hair shook up Broadway. The emerging counterculture took to the streets and shook society to its core. Speeches, marches and protests challenged the establishment on many fronts. “Middle America” dug in. Upheaval followed.

Troops were deployed in the Watts District of L.A. to quell riots in 1965. In the “long hot summer” of 1967, race riots erupted in 150 cities across the U.S. 1968 saw the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy. At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, riots erupted leading to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of the Chicago Seven. The whole world was indeed watching as our nation engaged in violent turmoil. Meanwhile, the “silent majority” elected Richard Nixon, a “law and order” president, who promised us “light at the end of the tunnel.”

By 1970, the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Rights Movement, the Student Movement, the Youth Movement and the Anti-War Movement, the counterculture with hippies and yippies all reached critical mass. “Don’t trust anyone over 30” was the rallying cry from the youthful end of the generation gap. Our nation was more deeply divided than any time since the Civil War.

Amid this strife, some things united us as a nation. Everyone’s eyes turned skyward as Apollo 11 carried Neil Armstrong for his historic walk on the moon in 1969. We were all Americans that day. 

And the first Earth Day brought us all together. On April 22, 1970, Americans from all backgrounds came together on a scale that far exceeded any of the other movements. 

Earth Day 1970 was well organized. It involved about 12,000 events across the country. It brought about 20 million Americans together. This was 10% of the population of the United States at the time. It became the largest secular protest of all time. 

Students and professors took to the streets to protest the ways in which we were degrading the planet. Students, housewives, workers and even some of the silent majority joined to help challenge and change established ways of thinking and doing things. Sit-ins became teach-ins. Speeches and organized events offered education. It was a day of direct action. Boots in the mud; gloves picking up garbage. All to improve our environment. 

Earth Day was a bipartisan movement as it continued through the 1970s and onward. According to Nicholas Lemann, writing for The New Yorker in 2013: 

Earth Day led to the Clean Air Act of 1970, the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and to the creation, just eight months after the event, of the Environmental Protection Agency. Throughout the 1970s, mostly during the Republican administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, Congress passed one environmental bill after another, establishing national controls on air and water pollution.

Of course, one day of action to make our planet more livable does not solve all problems. Our attention would soon be divided again.

Less than two weeks later, on April 30, 1970,  Nixon announced the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. On May 1, a wave of anti-war protests on college campuses and in cities throughout the U.S. began. These protests culminated with the tragic shootings at Kent State on May 4.

On Aug. 26, 1970, NOW activists organized approximately 50,000 women to march for equality in New York. At the same time, another 100,000 women participated in demonstrations and rallies in 90 cities and 42 states.

These events and other protests in 1970 were pivotal moments for our national reckoning of what it means to be an American. We still face many of the same questions and challenges as we try to form a more perfect union. 

The importance of Earth Day is to raise awareness of the need to protect our planet’s environment. It is also a day that unites us. We live in times that are again very divided. That’s the cycle of democracy. We have robust debates about competing visions of how to attain the greatest good for all.

During rancorous times like these, Earth Day can bring us all together. We all want to keep our planet healthy. And we can all put our boots on to take direct action and make this corner of our planet a better place. Be a part of the movement!

The Friends of Scotchman Peak Wilderness will be doing our part to make sure the spirit of Earth Day stays alive. On Saturday, April 20 we will host a trail project on the Star Peak 999 trail. For more information go to scotchmanpeaks.org.

Many organizations and communities will also be celebrating, with opportunities for education, engagement and direct action. For more information consult your local event calendars.

Phil Hough is executive director of the Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness.