Today is Earth Day. It was first observed in 1970, but its roots go back to the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s (books by this author) landmark book, Silent Spring, exposing the effects of pesticides and other chemical pollution on the environment.
During the late 1960s, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson had the idea to harness the energy and methods of the student protests against the Vietnam War to organize a grassroots conservation movement. At a press conference in 1969, he announced plans for a nationwide demonstration, to take place the following spring. Twenty million people nationwide participated in the first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, and the government finally took notice, forming the Environmental Protection Agency and passing the Clean Air, the Clean Water, and the Endangered Species Acts.
In 1990, on the 20th anniversary, organizer Denis Hayes took Earth Day to the international arena, and coordinated events in 141 countries worldwide, boosting the awareness and practice of recycling. The year 2000 marked the first time the event was coordinated on the Internet, and the message was the need for clean energy to counteract climate change.
According to the Earth Day Network, Earth Day is celebrated by a billion people, making it the world’s largest secular holiday. WA==
50 Years of Earth Day: What's Better Today, and What's Worse
Here are 10 big environmental victories — and 10 big failures.
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Earth Day 2020 was supposed to be a blowout 50th-birthday activist event, a public celebration of our planet and a call to action to insure its preservation as a sustainable and hospitable abode for our species. COVID-19 has ruined that, but every day should be Earth Day.
"There is a tomorrow" Honors Lecture Feb.3, 2020
If you're looking for a Fall course addressing these concerns, please consider PHIL 3340-Environmental Ethics. Texts:
- Environmental Ethics: A Very Short Introduction by Robin Attfield
- Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? by Bill McKibben
- On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal by Naomi Klein
- The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here by Hope Jahren
The only real debates left are over how fast and how far the climate will change, and what society should do to limit the damage.
Fifty years on, Denis Hayes is still trying to keep the spirit that made Earth Day a world-changing event alive — and to refocus its energy on climate change.
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How The Times Covered the First Earth Day, 50 Years Ago
For the first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, The New York Times went big.
The paper covered the day’s events — rallies and teach-ins attended by millions — across the entire country, from New York to California. These days, that kind of wall-to-wall coverage would be called “flooding the zone.”
Two articles, one from New York, the other from Washington, made it onto Page One of the next day’s paper, with a top-of-the-page photo of crowds on a carless Fifth Avenue.
The Earth Day coverage continued for nearly two full pages inside. Yet for all the newsprint The Times devoted to the event, the accounts were mundane, weighed down by politicians’ speechifying and descriptions of community cleanups and other feel-good activities... (continues)
==What We Know About Climate Change
by Kerry Emanuel
An M.I.T. climatologist and a conservative, Emanuel sounds the alarm in a measured and scientifically sound way, making clear what we know and what we don’t know. There is little panic in this slender book, but there is a lot of troubling information.
Emanuel specifically thought of his book as a way of offering ammunition to those trying to convince family members or friends who are skeptical or don’t understand the science.
“Young adults who are disputing this problem with their own parents or an uncle or something — they can hand the book to them and say, ‘Will you at least read this?’” Emanuel said in a 2013 interview with The Times. “One at a time, you might change minds.” (more reading recommendations)
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— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) April 22, 2020
We've all had to adapt to cope with a pandemic. Climate change will force far harsher changes on our kids. All of us should follow the young people who've led the efforts to protect our planet for generations, and demand more of our leaders at every level. https://t.co/uNueQl5bNX— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 22, 2020
This might be the inner hippy in me but I'm a firm believer in taking care of the planet every day. We take for granted our existence far too frequently so I hope COVID-19 has allowed some to appreciate life. It isn't too late for Earth but something must be done sooner rather than later.
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Hippy is just a stigma created by people who misunderstood others who cared about the future and were a little more free spirited! This pandemic had definitely given me a new perspective on my freedoms. I read somewhere that all the factory and store closures have been good for the environment which is promising, but what needs to be done doesn't have to be large things like that. It starts with you; be the sooner rather than the later. Don't create waste, eliminate personal emissions, know the facts and spread the word.
DeleteI have had a discussion with a family member a while back about climate change. They firmly did not believe it because there was one study that they found where the study data went against it. One of the most unproductive conversations in my life.
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Best way to counter the misinformation about climate that's so prevalent in our culture is by arming yourself with the facts. Check the reading recommendations above, starting with:
DeleteWhat We Know About Climate Change
by Kerry Emanuel
An M.I.T. climatologist and a conservative, Emanuel sounds the alarm in a measured and scientifically sound way, making clear what we know and what we don’t know. There is little panic in this slender book, but there is a lot of troubling information.
Emanuel specifically thought of his book as a way of offering ammunition to those trying to convince family members or friends who are skeptical or don’t understand the science.
“Young adults who are disputing this problem with their own parents or an uncle or something — they can hand the book to them and say, ‘Will you at least read this?’” Emanuel said in a 2013 interview with The Times. “One at a time, you might change minds.”
I've always been a bit confused by earth day. People make signs, buy new branded cloths, and travel to meet up sports. All of that just seems like a waste of limited resources. So going to a rally that preaches to save the earth, but then using materials that most people will only use once? Seems counter intuitive to me. Don't get me wrong I want to save the earth as much as the next guy, but wasting a lot of stuff to get the point across? That is not a great plan.
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Well, sometimes a movement needs a little push in the form of social solidarity. That's hard to achieve or demonstrate, in the absence of a public display. But you're right, we need to find sustainable ways of building the movement to sustain a planet hospitable to our form of life. Maybe that's another silver lining of the coronavirus crisis, we've all had to learn to communicate and congregate in virtual space. And we've burned a hell of a lot less fossil fuel in the process.
DeleteMy idea was more in line of a walkout as opposed to a rally. People could just work from home and use as few single use containers as possible, then just tweet about it. Less waste and less fossil fuel use for the same amount of coverage. With the pandemic going on thats bassically whats happening already, but maybe next year?
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ReplyDeleteI do believe there is climate change and that humanity is responsible for a portion of it. I am curious if there are studies as to what degree we are at fault. Also an interesting side note is that I would bet the corona virus has done more to assist the climate than anything else.
Many studies, including the IPCC's...
DeleteHuman influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of green-house gases are the highest in history. […] Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia.
IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5)
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/global-warming-happening-and-humans-are-primary-cause
This post is actually the first thing I've seen about earth day this year. I had completely forgot about it which is kind of sad. I have seen a lot of people talking about how the corona isolation has actually been kinda a break for the earth.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that Earth Day should be every day. It's hard to make the entire human population care because we are blinded with power and greed. I have always wished that many things didn't exist like power plants, oil extraction, plastic, and so on. I hate the fact that we constantly use non-reusable plates and utensils at home because we are too lazy to clean the dishes. It's scary to think that after life tries to go back to normal after COVID-19 that there may be disastrous consequences in the near future.
We should celebrate every day as Earth Day, especially now that we have more time to think about our actions as a human population and our impact on the environment.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, we should take care of Earth to the fullest because one day we aren't going to be here and I understand that, so we have to make sure Earth is functioning well for the kids after us. It's selfish how we think about don't think about global warming because we aren't going to here to witness the effects.
ReplyDeleteHaving children and anticipating grandchildren really does shift your perspective, or it did mine. Just because we won't be here in 100 years doesn't mean people we care about won't be. As Peter Singer says, the ethical attitude is to widen our circle of empathy.
DeleteThere have been many set backs in the last few years when it comes to environmental policy. I do however view plants and things of that nature as a necessity for efficiency in providing needed and wanted things to the people.
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I normally don't think much about things like these, but since this year has been so different, I feel like it makes me appreciate our home so much more. Being able to spend time in nature is something that I've definitely taken for granted before now.
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Given the situation that we find ourselves in today, I think it’s important that we are conscious of our effect on the planet. We take this pale blue dot for granted. Section 6
ReplyDeleteA little late since Earth Day was yesterday, but I think if people were able to spend more time observing nature and its beauties and see the damage we've done to it, maybe people would be more aware. Or perhaps humans are selfish and would rather focus on themselves than the physical world around them. I hope things change soon and we find better alternatives.
ReplyDeleteWe definitely need to think of every day as Earth Day. Earth Day is just a reminder to celebrate the earth and consider how we can keep it healthy. #11
ReplyDeleteOn the bright side, it's sorta like Earth-season instead of day thanks to the Coronavirus. There's been an incredible plunge in the usage of oil (You can see the low prices as a result lately), cruise ships are grounded, manufacturing is through the floor. Environmentally, the targets people have been asking for were achieved almost overnight, but only temporarily until things open back up. At the very least, it's been a +1 in the yearly deluge of -10's.
ReplyDeleteI do believe it is very important to think about our impact on the Earth. This doesn't mean we have to all become active conservationists, but we should still understand that, as a society, some of our behaviors are very destructive to the world around us and we need to do the best we can to minimize this destruction. Obviously there will be some destruction (there are 7 billion of us!) but we need to do our best.
ReplyDeleteI’ve always thought that the mindset of “oh well it’s too late now might as well just do whatever to the planet” is so narrow minded and annoying. I only state that because I think that’s what everyone’s mindset has been for a century, causing our current predicament. The changing of this mindset has to take place if there is to be any hope for keeping this rock clean and habitable
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