How Earth Day Got Started and How it Evolved

                                                                                         

There are two Earth Days, as well as an Earth Hour. One Earth Day was proposed by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO conference in San Francisco. This Equinox Earth Day is celebrated each year on the March equinox, around March 20. (1)

The other Earth Day, which this article is about, was founded by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. In the early 1960's Senator Nelson became concerned about the lack of interest by politicians in remedying the environmental degradations of the time. Americans were driving huge gas guzzling cars powered by leaded gasoline and industrial pollution was the order of the day, generally considered as the price one had to pay for prosperity. In official circles there was little interest in biofriendly matters.

Senator Nelson brought the matter to President Kennedy's attention, who went on a five-day tour in eleven states to promote environmental conservation, but for various reasons the tour was not a success.

The Senator also lectured across the nation in twenty-five states on the evils of environmental destruction and found great interest among the people, but no response among politicians. In Nelson's words, "The people were concerned, but the politicians were not." (2)

By 1969, demonstrations against the war in Vietnam, called "teach-ins," were springing up at college campuses all over America and one day Senator Nelson hit on the bright idea that the same thing could be done for the environment.

Following up on this idea, he announced at a 1969 conference in Seattle that a grassroots pro-environmental demonstration would take place in the spring of 1970 and he invited everyone to join in.

The media carried the news and the response was amazing. The Senator's office was inundated with calls, telegrams and letters. "It took off like gangbusters," he recalls. He soon enlisted the help of environmental activist Denis Hayes to coordinate the event and handle the enormous amount of traffic.

On April 22, 1970, the demonstration took place. It was a huge success and an estimated 20 million people participated all over America. Following this event, President Nixon founded the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Congress passed the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts. Senator Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor for his role in creating environmental awareness.

1990 was another big year for the environment. With Denis Hayes' help Earth Day went global and this time about 200 million people took part in 141 countries across the globe. Recycling efforts worldwide received a strong boost and the event provided an impetus for the 1992 Rio de Janeiro U.N. Earth Summit.

Assisted by the Internet, Earth Day 2000 was another mammoth event, where global warming and clean energy were key issues. Five thousand environmental groups from across the world took part and hundreds of millions of people from 184 countries joined in.
On April 22, 2008, people all over the world once again expressed their commitment to a healthier, more biofriendly planet.
One company, Biofriendly Corporation, is making an important contribution to a cleaner environment. Their liquid fuel catalyst, Green Plus®, provides internal combustion engines with a cleaner, more linear burn that improves gas mileage, increases torque and reduces harmful emissions.

For more information on Green Plus, visit the Biofriendly website at www.biofriendly.com.

References:
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day
(2) http://earthday.envirolink.org/history.html

About the author:
Author, Peter Verhoeff, contributes articles on environmental issues for Biofriendly Corporation. More information on these and other topics can be found on the Biofriendly site.

Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com