The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. It was organized by a bipartisan group of Congresspeople and activists working together. By the end of 1970, Congress had passed the EPA, the Clean Air Act, and several other environmentally minded bills.
The environmental movement had its first big wake-up call with the publication of Rachel Carson’s best-selling book Silent Spring, in 1962. Carson made clear the link between our own health and the health of the planet. With this growing awareness, more and more people became concerned about the environment. After the devastating oil spills in Santa Barbara in 1969, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin felt it was time to act. He gathered a group of bipartisan politicians and student activists to organize the first Earth Day, including Republican Pete McCloskey and activist Denis Hayes. The event energized 20 million Americans to attend rallies across the country and helped unite the numerous environmental organizations around a single day. It was the catalyst that activated Congress to pass numerous environmental bills.
Twenty years later, in 1990, Earth Day was celebrated globally, and led to the UN creating an Environmental Summit in 1992. In 2000, the focus was on global warming and advancing clean energy. Today, over fifty years after it was founded, Earth Day is now the largest non-religious celebration across the planet. It continues to be a day where we can unite to work on innovative solutions to the environmental challenges we face.
Learn more about Earth Day here: https://www.earthday.org/
The theme of Earth Day 2021 is Restore Our Earth. Join earthday.org for three days of climate action!: https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2021/
Protecting our planet starts with you: Ten simple things you can do to help the Earth: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ocean/earthday.html
Volunteer with Solano Land Trust this Earth Day weekend to remove litter along Grizzly Island Rd. Registration required. https://solanolandtrust.org/events/2021-earth-day
Clean Up Solano encourages everyone to take local action in their neighborhoods: https://www.cleanupsolano.org/home
Visit Vallejo has organized The Big Clean on April 24—help make Vallejo so clean. They are giving away 100 tickets to Six Flags! http://visitvallejo.com/thebigclean