The year is 1966, November 26th, in New York City, and the New York Times headline reads “…NEW YORK CAUGHT IN POISON BALLOON.…” Due to changes in weather and pressure in the atmosphere, reports shared how air pollution became trapped. Effects to the population included the pollutants increasing lung diseases and eye irritation amongst the residents. Fast forward to January 1969, there was an oil spill off the Santa Barbra coast. According to the Los Angeles Times, the spill stretched 35 miles off the coastline and devastated the ecosystem in its path. A few months later, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio once again caught on fire, says the Smithsonian magazine, due to years of dumping waste and oil that sat on top of the water. These were just a couple of the damaging incidents occurring on our Earth. This is the opposite of what we now call environmental stewardship.
These environmental incidents led the state of Wisconsin’s
then-Senator Nelson to make a call to action. Senator Nelson turned to the
local university students during spring break to hold information sessions to
educate them about the environmental degradation occurring. From there on, the student
group shared the importance of caring for our limited natural resources through
campus events. With a growing emergence of environmental consciousness leading
up to April 22, 1970, the group decided to change the event/day’s name to Earth
Day, sparking millions across America to join in demanding better care for our
health and the Earth’s health.
This rushing emergence of people coming together, like
individual water droplets coming together to form a raging river, created a
loud noise for everyone, including Congress, to push through and enforce
federal laws constructed during this time, like the Clean
Air Act, Clean
Water Act, Endangered
Species Act, as well as the establishment of the Environmental
Protection Agency. It ensures that we start considering the Earth’s Health
when we use its resources.
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