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Earth Day Facts

Every year on April 22, trees are planted, litter is cleaned up,
and awareness for the issues plaguing the planet are raised. In
honor of the holiday, now in its 48th year, we’ve gathered
together 10 fascinating facts about Earth Day.

1. EARTH DAY WAS CREATED THROUGH THE

TIRELESS EFFORTS OF WISCONSIN SENATOR
GAYLORD NELSON.

Senator Gaylord Nelson arrived in Washington in 1963 looking

to make the fledgling conservation movement, sparked in part
by Rachel Carson’s New York Times Bestseller Silent Spring , a
part of the national discourse. After witnessing the aftermath of
an oil spill in California in 1969 , Nelson doubled down on his
commitment to raising environmental awareness. Drawing
inspiration from the energetic anti-war movement of the time,
he enlisted support from both sides of the political spectrum,
and on April 22, 1970, Earth Day was born.
2. JOHN F. KENNEDY PLAYED A ROLE IN EARLY
EFFORTS TO PROMOTE ENVIRONMENTAL
CONSERVATION.

In 1963, Gaylord Nelson proposed a "conservation tour " to

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Arthur Schlesinger, a
member of President Kennedy’s "Best and Brightest " cabinet.
Schlesinger privately endorsed the idea to the President, while
Nelson wrote a direct memo to Kennedy, a bold move for a
freshman senator from Wisconsin. Kennedy, however, was
incredibly receptive, and on September 24, 1963, JFK
embarked on a conservation-themed multi-state tour. The
President, accompanied by Secretary of the Interior Stewart
Udall, Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman, as well as
Nelson and a few additional senators, visited 11 states in five
days. Nelson was disappointed in the President’s speeches,
saying they "didn’t have much sweep or drama to them." In
addition, members of the press ignored environmental issues
and instead focused their questions on the tense nuclear
situation with the Soviet Union. It would be another seven
years until Earth Day became a reality.
3. THE FIRST EARTH DAY SAW 20 MILLION
AMERICANS TAKE TO THE STREETS.

Children sweeping a city park in New York City on Earth Day, circa 1970s.
Getty

The first Earth Day marked a strange combination of

boisterous rallies and sober reflection on the state of the planet.
Protests, demonstrations, fundraisers, nature walks, speeches,
concerts, and every sort of civic gathering imaginable took
place at colleges, VFW halls, public squares, and parks across
the United States on April 22, 1970. Environmental crusaders
found themselves thrust into the limelight , and pop culture
icons like poet Allen Ginsberg were asked to speak on behalf
of Mother Earth. Some of the more colorful displays of the day
included mock trials for polluting objects, like an old
Chevrolet, which was sentenced to death by sledgehammer.
(The car ultimately survived the beating and was donated to an
art class.) In New York City, Earth Day
celebrations effectively shut down  parts of the city. Twenty
thousand people packed into Union Square to see Paul
Newman and hear a speech by Mayor John Lindsay, who
arrived on an electric bus.

4. THE DATE OF EARTH DAY WAS

SPECIFICALLY SELECTED TO MOBILIZE
COLLEGE STUDENTS.

To head up the Earth Day project, Senator Nelson

enlisted Denis Hayes , then a graduate student at Harvard
University. As national coordinator, Hayes recruited a staff of
85 energetic young environmental crusaders and grassroots
organizers, along with thousands of field volunteers, in order
to promote the fledgling holiday across the nation. The team
knew that in order to gain the most traction, college students
would need to play a central role , as they did in the Vietnam
protests of the era. The date that Hayes selected for the first
Earth Day was calculated choice : April 22 on most college
campuses falls right between Spring Break and Final Exams.
5. EARTH DAY FACED CRITICISM FROM THE
VERY BEGINNING.

According to Grist

, the first Earth Day faced staunch opposition from

conservative groups like the John Birch Society, who claimed
that the event was a thinly veiled attempt to honor the 100th
anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin. In addition to
detractors on the far right of the political spectrum, bleeding-
heart environmental crusaders weren’t satisfied either. Earth
Day, they claimed, simply served as a distraction from the
more pressing social issues of the day. Journalist I.F. Stone
said, "The country is slipping into a wider war in Southeast
Asia and we’re sitting here talking about litterbugs." Critics of
the holiday also point to the trend of "greenwashing ," an
attempt by corporations with poor environmental track records
to appear conscientious if only once a year.
6. EARTH DAY SPARKED AN UNPRECEDENTED
SLATE OF ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION.

Students assemble a globe on the National Mall in Washington D.C. in 1995.

Getty

With bipartisan support in Congress and thousands of civic

demonstrations across the country, support for environmental
reform in 1970 was undeniable. According to the EPA , "Public
opinion polls indicate that a permanent change in national
priorities followed Earth Day 1970. When polled in May 1971,
25 percent of the U.S. public declared protecting the
environment to be an important goal, a 2500 percent increase
over 1969." The 1970s saw the passage of the most
comprehensive environmental legislation in U.S. history,
including the Clean Air Act, the Water Quality Improvement
Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Toxic Substances Control
Act, and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. In
addition, just 8 months after the first Earth Day, Richard Nixon
approved the creation of a new organization tasked with
monitoring the nation’s natural assets: the Environmental
Protection Agency.

7. ALTHOUGH IT BEGAN AS AN AMERICAN

MOVEMENT, EARTH DAY IS NOW AN
INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON ...

In 1990, Earth Day expanded  to include countries and peoples

across the globe, with 200 million people in 141 nations
getting involved. A decade later, at the turn of the new
millennium, Earth Day shed light on the emerging Clean
Energy movement and expanded its reach, spreading to 184
countries with the help of 5000 environmental organizations.
Global activities included a massive traveling drum chain in
Gabon, Africa and an unprecedented gathering of hundreds of
thousands of concerned citizens at the National Mall in
Washington, D.C. According to Earth Day Network , after 40
years, more than 1 billion people participate in Earth Day
activities, making it the largest secular civic event in the world.
8. ... AND INTERNATIONALLY, IT'S KNOWN AS
INTERNATIONAL MOTHER EARTH DAY.

Thai students paint a wall at the U.S. embassy in Bangkok for Earth Day,
2005. Getty

Earth Day is now observed around the world, albeit under a

different name: In 2009, the United Nations General
Assembly decided to designate  April 22 as International
Mother Earth Day. The symbol of Mother Earth serves as a
common metaphor and representation of our planet in many
countries and cultures. In the United States, the holiday is still
commonly referred to as Earth Day.
9. IN 2009, NASA PLANTED A HISTORIC "MOON
TREE" TO CELEBRATE EARTH DAY.

During the Apollo 14 moon mission  in 1971, astronaut Stuart

Roosa brought with him hundreds of tree seeds including
Loblolly Pine, Sycamore, Sweetgum, Redwood, and Douglas
Fir. Roosa was a former smokejumper  for the U.S. Forest
Service, and he transported the seeds in his personal effects as
a tribute to his former employer. Roosa and his seeds orbited
the Moon 34 times in the command module Kitty
Hawk. Scientists were curious  whether or not exposure to the
microgravity of space would impact the growth of these seeds
when returned to Earth.

The experiment seemed like a lost cause when, during the post-
mission decontamination process, the seed canisters broke
open and the seeds were thought to be useless. However, most
of the tree seeds were still fit for germination and were
successfully planted and cultivated. These trees were planted
around National Monuments, as well as in sites all over the
world. After decades of growing side-by-side with their Earth
cousins, the Moon Trees showed no differences at all. On Earth
Day 2009, NASA, in partnership with the United States
National Arboretum and American Forests, planted a second
generation Moon Sycamore on the arboretum’s grounds in
Washington, D.C.
10. IN PREPARATION FOR EARTH DAY'S 50TH
ANNIVERSARY IN 2020, A NEW
ENVIRONMENTAL THEME WILL BE
ANNOUNCED EVERY YEAR FOR THE NEXT FIVE
YEARS.

For Earth Day 2016, the environmental theme of choice was

trees. The Earth Day Network has announced the ambitious
plan to plant 7.8 billion trees over the next five years. Trees are
essential tools in the fight for a cleaner, sustainable
environment. According to the Earth Day Network , in one year
a single acre of mature trees absorbs the same amount of
carbon dioxide produced by driving the average consumer car
26,000 miles. Nearly 8 billion may seem like a daunting
number, but similarly ambitious plantings have been
undertaken in the past. Earth Day 2011 saw the planting of
over a million new trees in Afghanistan.

The theme for Earth Day 2017 is Environmental and Climate

Literacy and seeks to increase knowledge amongst voters and
work to advocate for climate laws and policies that will
accelerate green technology, jobs, and environmental
protection. 

This story originally ran in 2016.