When you think of Earth Day, do you know that -the first Earth Day (April 22, 1970) was not the beginning of the environmental movement? -the landmark legislation of the 1970s was not the beginning of environmental law? -today's most important environmental laws were enacted with a Republican President and Democrats Congress? -the Environmental Protection Agency was at first the most popular agency in the federal government? -favoring new environmental laws was politically the safest stance? -groups as different as the John Birch Society and Students for a Democratic Society agreed on the need to stop pollution? -that the idea of Earth Day was modeled after anti-Vietnam War teach-ins? -that most of the academics' predictions of environmental catastrophe were wrong? -that the most vocal environmental activists today are still wrong because they make the same flawed arguments? Before the first Earth Day Earth Day 1970 marks a turning point in history of environmentalism. Scientists began to express concern about atomic testing and massive spraying of pesticides in the 1950s. The public feared the environmental effects of pollution and the safety of food like never before. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) made scientific knowledge known to the public and galvanized that fear into calls for action. Conservationists once concerned only about wilderness and wildlife preservation became concerned about such a wider range of issues that they started calling themselves environmentalists instead. First Earth Day, 1970 Senator Gaylord Nelson conceived of a national teach-in to put the energy of the antiwar movement to work on environmental issues. He succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations. Academics, politicians, business leaders, labor leaders, students, housewives, and school children all spoke about the environment at teach-ins all over the country. Earth Day became an annual event. Unfortunately students and academics speaking outside their professional competence made wildly bad predictions about the looming environmental catastrophe -Some named overpopulation as the most important problem. They feared it was already impossible to prevent widespread starvation in India and elsewhere. Meanwhile, Norman Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for preventing widespread starvation in India and elsewhere. -Some claimed modern technology caused of pollution and was powerless to fix what it had damaged. -Some noted that the world climate had been cooling since the 1940s and warned of a coming ice age caused by burning fossil fuels. -Some blamed our Judeo-Christian heritage for standing in the way of progress and advocated sweeping changes to the fabric of society even if they required government coercion. The environment today Do these claims sound familiar? Environmental activists still loudly and insistently make them today. Global warming has replaced the coming ice age as the issue of choice. It is more nearly correct, but advocates propose needlessly coercive legal remedies and belittle anyone who thinks differently about the issue. That would be most of the public. The public has stopped listening to environmentalists and lost interest in environmental issues and patience with environmentalism, especially climate change rhetoric. Meanwhile, work remains real environmental problems of waste and pollution from 1970. New environmental issues have arisen, which go as far beyond environmentalism as environmentalism went beyond conservationism. A new term, sustainability, better expresses the breadth of these concerns. How can we achieve sustainability in today's polarized political climate? For starters, we can follow sustainability leaders outside of government and environmental action groups who are providing tools to live sustainable lives. I experienced the first Earth Day, and have conducted thorough research. If you care about environmental history, scroll u
About the Author: David M. Guion, the All-Purpose Guru, is a librarian and multi-specialist. He has education, training, and experience in several subjects and publishes the fruit of careful research in order to proved reliable and accurate information. His two books on the history of the trombone place him among the world's foremost authorities on the subject--a very large fish in a very small pond. As a blogger and an author for the Amazon Kindle platform, he aims to be a reasonable sized fish in some roomier ponds: classical music, American popular music (before rock), sustainability and green living, research and writing, food, and the Bible. David seeks to connect with readers who have an interest in his topics, but not necessarily specialists' knowledge. Besides his Kindle books, he writes four blogs (Musicology for Everyone, Grace and Judgment; Reading, Writing, Research, and Sustaining Our World) and has posted numerous articles to Hub Pages. Librarians specialize in organizing the world's knowledge and looking it up. David knows how to conduct thorough research and communicate his findings to interested non-specialists in language that's clear, easy to understand, interesting, and sometimes funny.