It was a remarkable event. Twenty million Americans came together in small towns and major cities to take action on April 22, 1970. The first Earth Day was the largest grass-roots demonstration in American history. Almost overnight, the right to a clean and healthy environment, championed across time and the political spectrum by the likes of Theodore Roosevelt and Rachel Carson, became the nationâ??s chorus. A decade of sweeping environmental legislation and reform followed.
Forty years later, coalitions of citizens – concerned about climate change, food security, health, energy supplies and clean water – still work to address local and global environmental challenges. As we celebrate this week the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the past informs our present and future. A column by Gregg Mitman, interim director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.