Happy Earth Day! Thank you for doing your part to be sustainable and adopting new practices in your lives to reduce your environmental impact.
We celebrate Earth Day every year, but when did it start? And why? Take a minute to read on about the history of Earth Day and reflect on how we can be the best environmental stewards we can be.
Earth Day was an idea that Wisconsin Junior Senator Gaylord Nelson, an early climate activist, had in the 1960s to bring awareness to negative human impacts on the environment. Targeting college campuses across the country, Nelson and Denis Hayes, a young activist, chose April 22 for the first Earth Day because it was the week between Spring Break and finals week – the period where the most students would be on campus. Over time, Hayes and Nelson built a groundswell of young people looking to protect the environment, organizing the first Earth Day in 1970. According to earthday.org, the first Earth Day is still the largest secular protest in the world.
The vastness of Earth Day demonstrations across the United States led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of environmental laws, including the National Environmental Education Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Clean Air Act, and Clean Water Act.
Learn more about Earth Month at earthday.org.
