Founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin in 1970, Earth Day was developed as an attempt to promote national awareness of our environmental issues. It sparked 20 million people to jump into action domestically and eventually led our government into developing the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. Each year it is received with praise and controversy and I expect that this year will be no different.
In 1995, its 25th anniversary, many environmentalists were concerned that "the event had taken on a nebulous feel-good air and a degree of corporate sponsorship that led some to say Earth Day had been ''greenwashed'' out of significance." Al Gore wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times explaining his concerns that we've lost the ideals that the original Earth Day had been developed for. While we were still expanding out education of environmental issues, we weren't living up to the need for policy change. The first Earth Day had wowed us and proved that if we pushed for the changes we wanted, they could be accomplished.
For its 30th anniversary, many were excited that Earth Day had reached a global level of more than 4,500 organizations in 180 countries, and that its original leader Denis Hayes was back in the seat to expand the project that he helped begin so many years ago. Many were hoping that he would be able to replicate the success that he had once achieved. Unfortunately, on the policy front, he fell short.
Now in its 40th year, environmentalists and non-environmentalists alike are at it again. While the education and grass-roots efforts are expanding exponentially, many people are still concerned that the policy action will not happen. This year especially, with the "failure" in Copenhagen to develop a climate bill, the questions lingers if Earth Day will help get things moving.
On the Earth Day Network's website for Earth Day 2010, they list their "Core Issues" as advocacy, climate change, conservation and biodiversity, education, energy, food and agriculture, green economy, green schools, recycling and waste reduction, sustainable development, and water. While this seems like a long list of things to accomplish, they have titled their rally for a climate bill "The Official Earth Day 2010 Campaign." The rally is scheduled for Sunday, April 25, on the National Mall in Washington. What appears to be a serious effort in engaging a movement, it may still be a long while before anything happens.
While pushing for policy change is pivotal in regard to environmental protection, I'm not sure that it should be the main focus of Earth Day. In my opinion, the "promotion of national awareness of our environmental issues" should be at the forefront of Earth Day and other modern efforts that aim to improve the human-earth relationship. Mobilizing people by educating them on environmental issues and how such issues affect them in their daily lives is a prerequisite to effective policy change. Earth Day did not necessarily lead to pivotal environmental legislation, but rather the shifting paradigms in American society brought about by the counterculture and civil rights movements changed the way people thought and in turn the way congressmen voted. By showing other people on Earth Day, and every other day of the year for that matter, how little steps can be taken to improve the environment and in effect individual well being, political change will surely result in our representative democracy.
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