The History of Earth Day and Modern Environmentalism
Happy Earth Month! Let’s talk about how this all started and the significance of Earth Day.
If you’re interested in the History of Zero Waste, check out this video!
Early Environmentalism
I won’t go into it fully, mostly because we don’t have time, but Wikipedia has a great timeline of environmentalism going back hundreds of years. Most of this is not environmentalism as we know it today, but it’s comprised of concerned humans and their awareness of our collective action on the planet. Though our modern look at environmentalism started long before the first Earth Day in 1970. As early as the mid-1800s, people were concerned about the sustainability of coal energy, and laws started to be implemented to try to halt acid rain as well as reduce waste in our rivers. Even the world’s first National Park was established in 1872, Yellowstone in Wyoming. This was a huge push for global conservation.
There are many more notable events in that timeline, but I just wanted to highlight that we have known about overconsumption and man-made climate change long before the first Earth Day and the modern Zero Waste movement.
I’m happy to dive into this topic more in-depth, if there’s interest!
Leading up to the first Earth Day
The first Earth Day didn’t happen by accident. We had reached several breaking points for climate change, as well as taking care of the planet. Events such as:
Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller, Silent Spring, was published in 1962. This book was groundbreaking and is still read by environmentalists today. Carson sheds light on the chilling impacts of DDT and other fertilizers on the entire ecosystem.
“On January 28, 1969, about five miles off the Southern California coast, a blow-out occurred on Union Oil’s Platform A, spewing an estimated 3 million gallons of crude oil into the Santa Barbara Channel and fouling beaches from Goleta to Ventura and across to the rugged Channel Islands. Thousands of birds were killed, and numerous ocean wildlife, including sea lions, Santa Barbara oil spill 1969 elephant seals, and fish, perished. The blow-out also took an economic toll on the community. Commercial fishing was temporarily suspended, tourism suffered, and coastal properties bore considerable damage. It also helped spark several environmental laws and policies, including the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the California Coastal Commission, and laid the foundation for the modern environmental movement.”
The Cuyahoga River catches fire…again…in 1969. This was one of two catalysts that led to the nationwide event for the first Earth Day in 1970. Before this fire, witnesses said that “There was a general rule that if you fell in, God forbid, you would go immediately to the hospital.” According to the Smithsonian, “To the surprise of no one who worked on the Cuyahoga, an oil slick on the river caught fire the morning of Sunday, June 22, 1969.” Ohioans and other Americans had had enough. Shortly after, “Congress established the Environmental Protection Agency in January 1970, for the first time creating a federal bureau to oversee pollution regulations.”
The First Earth Day
According to Wikipedia, “In 1969 at a UNESCO conference in San Francisco, peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace, to first be observed on March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere.”
But, a month later…
According to Earthday.org, “Senator Gaylord Nelson, the junior senator from Wisconsin, had long been concerned about the deteriorating environment in the United States. After the events of 1969, he was inspired by the student anti-war movement and wanted to infuse the energy of student anti-war protests with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a teach-in on college campuses to the national media and persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair.
“Senator Gaylord Nelson recruited Denis Hayes, a young activist, to organize the campus teach-ins and to scale the idea to a broader public, and they chose April 22, a weekday falling between Spring Break and Final Exams, to maximize the greatest student participation.
“Recognizing its potential to inspire all Americans, Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land, and the effort soon broadened to include a wide range of organizations, faith groups, and others. They changed the name to Earth Day, which immediately sparked national media attention and caught on across the country. Earth Day inspired 20 million Americans — at the time, 10% of the total population of the United States — to take to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate against the impacts of 150 years of industrial development, which had left a growing legacy of serious human health impacts.”
The Legacy of Earth Day
According to Earthday.org, “By the end of 1970, the first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of other first-of-their-kind environmental laws, including the National Environmental Education Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the Clean Air Act. Two years later, Congress passed the Clean Water Act.”
According to Wikipedia, “The 1970s were a period of substantial environmental legislation, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Superfund, Toxics Substances Control Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. It had seen the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the banning of DDT and of lead in gasoline. Jimmy Carter was president. The 1980 Earth Day effort was led by Mike McCabe and Byron Kennard, held in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House.”
Then, in 1990, Wikipedia states that “this event mobilized 200 million people in 141 countries and lifted the status of environmental issues onto the world stage. Earth Day activities in 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. Unlike the first Earth Day in 1970, this 20th Anniversary was waged with stronger marketing tools, greater access to television and radio, and multimillion-dollar budgets.”
And events occur on Earth Day every April 22 to this day! Earth Day has since expanded into Earth Week and Earth Month to encourage folks to celebrate the planet, donate, volunteer, and get educated all April long…and hopefully all year long! Earth Day is still going strong in 2026 with national programs happening, and has also expanded to many countries around the world.
The downside to Earth Day
But Earth Day can be a time where greenwashing runs rampant and wasteful companies try to make a quick buck off of people who care about the planet. That is so antithetical to the movement. So keep your eye out for this. I have a full video with tips for spotting greenwashing here, but in short, look out for:
Is the company promoting eco products all year long or just in April?
Does the company have just one eco-friendly product, or is the entire company sustainable?
Is the brand just using generic and misleading terms like “green,” or do they have substantiated claims that are backed up?
Is the company or product 3rd-party certified?
And more! Keep your eye out!
Now, yes, some eco brands will go on sale for Earth Month or Earth Day. I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy truly eco-friendly products during this time. If this is the only time of year you can afford your favorite eco swaps, I see no problem in supporting small and sustainable businesses that care about the planet all year long!
The other downside to Earth Day, I think, is that it’s a good excuse for many folks to just check the “good deed” box and move on with their day. I see it less commonly than I used to, but I still see it: folks posting a photo of a beautiful landscape from their vacation, captioned something along the lines of “Happy Earth Day, so grateful for our planet.” And then they call it a day. That is the entirety of the care for the planet for the calendar year.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that every person needs to become an environmental activist overnight. But my wish is that more people would put their actions and their money where their mouth is. I know every single person cares about the planet…to some extent. This planet gives us water, food, air, and everything else we love! So I just want more people to ACT like it.
It’s easy to take small actions such as voting for climate-forward people, voting for climate legislation, using a reusable water bottle, and picking up trash when you see it, just to name a few. It would be great to see every single person go above these, but I think this is a great place to start for anyone who claims to love the planet. Here are some beginner ways to go zero waste!
The future of Earth Day
Thankfully, Earth Day is not a government-run event or organization. As our national government in the US dismantles just about everything good for the planet (more on that here), it’s good to fall back on community and non-profits for environmental justice and climate wins.
There is still hope to be had. If anything, have hope out of spite. The government is trying to suffocate us with bad news. They want us to be hopeless because then we quit fighting them, and they can commit their heinous crimes more easily. So find your reason to hope!
Coming soon is even MORE ways to celebrate Earth Day in 2026, but for now, check out my videos of the past:
2022: 22 ways to celebrate the Earth!
2023: 23 ways to celebrate Earth Day
2024: 24 more ways to celebrate Earth Month
2025: 25 MORE ways to celebrate Earth Month
Happy Earth Month! I hope you continue to celebrate and honor the Earth every day of every year. The more of us that do that, the easier it will be to achieve our climate goals. We don’t need a handful of perfect environmentalists, we just need every single person to try a little bit and do their best!
Thanks for reading along, as always, remember that your small actions make a big difference in the long run :)
Emma
