Earth Day was originally held on the 22nd of April 1970. It was organized by a man named Gaylord Nelson who was a senator in Wisconsin at the time. An office was created in Washington where protestors which mostly consisted of college students around the country could come together and create ideas. At the time there weren’t many environmental movements and the ones that did exist didn’t have a large following. That’s what made Earth Day so special. It was the largest Environmental protest with around 20 million people from around the U.S. participating. There was nothing like it. The sheer scale of Earth Day was insurmountable. People wanted to take a stand and protest about the destruction of the environment and try to educate and inform the public and even the government that we need to protect the planet.
There were a few things that really prompted the idea of an Earth Day. At the time there weren’t many laws stopping companies from dumping toxic chemicals into lakes, polluting the air, and putting unhealthy pesticides on crops. These things were not just harmful to people but very harmful to the environment as well. The Santa Barbara oil spill in1969 was the largest at the time and 3rd now. This was almost the last straw and really kicked the Earth Day movement into gear. Earth Day was so effective in getting the public attention that it ended up getting the government’s attention. The government ended up forming the Environmental Protection Agency or the EPA. After this congress then passed the clean air act in 1970 and the clean water act in 1972. The clean air act regulates the amount of pollution that is allowed in the air and helps try to find solutions to bring pollution down in big cities to provide cleaner air. The clean water act regulates how companies dispose of toxic chemicals and keeps fresh water sources clean and drinkable for everyone.
Earth Day has since become a global environmental movement and is the biggest environmental movement. Today Earth Day helps talk about climate change and promotes ways of combating the issue. Earth Day has global clean up efforts that help clean up areas that have large amounts of trash and litter. They also help plant trees all around the world. Earth Day has been able to teach people and show people how important our planet is and how much we need to take care of it.
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