KABARMEGAPOLITAN.com – Earth Day April 22: increase public awareness and concern for the environment. Today, April 22 to be precise, is celebrated as Earth Day. In the decades leading up to the first revolution, Americans consumed large amounts of leaded gas through the use of very large and inefficient automobiles.
The industry spews smoke and sludge without fear of legal consequences or bad press.
Air pollution is generally accepted as the smell of prosperity. Until now, mainstream American society is still unaware of environmental problems and how environmental pollution threatens human health.
However, things began to change with the publication of Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller, Silent Spring, in 1962.
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This book sold more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries because it increased public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment, and the close relationship between pollution and public health.
Gaylord Nelson, the junior senator from Wisconsin, has long been concerned about the deteriorating environment in the United States.
Then, in January 1969, he and many others witnessed the devastation of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California.
Inspired by the student anti-war movement, Senator Nelson wanted to infuse the energy of anti-war student protests with a rise in public awareness about air and water pollution.
Senator Nelson announced the idea of holding teach-ins on college campuses to the national media, and persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican congressman, to serve as co-chair.
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Senator Nelson recruited Denis Hayes, a young activist, to organize teaching on campus and spread the idea to the wider community.
They chose April 22, a weekday that fell between Spring Break and Final Exams, to maximize student participation.
Recognizing its potential to inspire all Americans, Hayes assembled a national staff of 85 people to promote events across the country.
The effort soon expanded to include organizations, religious groups, and others.
They changed the name to Earth Day, which immediately attracted national media attention and spread across the country.
Earth Day inspired 20 million Americans, who at the time constituted 10 percent of the total population of the United States, to demonstrate against the impacts of 150 years of industrial development that had left a legacy of serious problems with an increasingly large impact on human health.***
