Our Favorite Planet

Tomorrow is Earth Day. The first Earth Day, conceived by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, was celebrated on April 22, 1970. He passed away July 2005 at the age of 89, but prior to his death he answered some of the questions he was most often asked about how he conceived of the first Earth Day, why, and what his hopes for the observance had been.

For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country…. At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air - and they did so with spectacular exuberance. For the next four months, two members of my Senate staff, Linda Billings and John Heritage, managed Earth Day affairs out of my Senate office.

Five months before Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the astonishing proliferation of environmental events:

"Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam… a national day of observance of environmental problems is being planned for next spring when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in' coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned…."

How has our planet fared since the first Earth Day held in 1970? Read OUR FAVORITE PLANET by Nicholas Kristof (New York Times, April 20, 2008).

Some good environmental blogs to bookmark and a special Going Green report:

Dot Earth (New York Times)
Dateline Earth (Seattle P-I)
PDX Green (The Oregonian)
Going Green (The Vancouver Sun Special Report)

... P. L. Morningstar