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Feature
Happy 50th Birthday, Earth Day!
The first Earth Day in 1970 launched a wave of action, including the passage of landmark
environmental laws in the United States. The Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species
Acts were created in response to the first Earth Day in 1970, as well as the creation of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Many countries soon adopted similar laws.
Earth Day 1970 gave a voice to an emerging public
consciousness about the state of our planet.
In the decades leading up to the first Earth Day, Americans were
consuming vast amounts of leaded gas through massive and
inefficient automobiles. Industry belched out smoke and sludge
with little fear of the consequences from either the law or bad
press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of
prosperity. Until this point, mainstream America remained
largely oblivious to environmental concerns and how a
polluted environment threatens human health.
On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans — 10 percent of
the U.S. population at the time — took to the streets, college
campuses and hundreds of cities to protest environmental
ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet.
The first Earth Day is credited with launching
the modern environmental movement and is now
recognized as the planet’s largest civic event.
In 1990, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million
people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto
the world stage. Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling
efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United
Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It also prompted
President Bill Clinton to award Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis.) the
Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest honor given to civilians
in the United States — for his role as Earth Day founder.
Today, Earth Day is widely recognized as the largest secular observance
in the world, marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of
action to change human behavior and provoke policy changes. Now, the fight
for a clean environment continues with increasing urgency.
Meet TreesCharlotte: Charlotte Earth Day Festival Celebration
•Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center Plaza Parking Lot 600 E. 4th Street
Wednesday,
PRIZES
E
April 22 LIVE MUSIC
11:30 a.m. C T I VIT IES
DUCATIONAL A
10 | April 2020 • Mecklenburg Medicine
