In the News

Earth Day Celebrates 35-year History
date posted: December 27 2005

Lake Tahoe Report #113
April 15, 2005
By John Cobourn and Heather Segale

This year is the 35th anniversary of Earth Day. Around the world, millions of people and thousands of nongovernmental organizations, governments, schools, and faith-based groups are making plans to declare that they are part of this extraordinary worldwide movement to protect our planet, our children, and our future.

Before the first Earth Day, awareness of environmental problems grew slowly. In the 1950s and 60s, environmental contamination was largely seen as the consequence of economic progress. As cities grew and industries flourished, toxic emissions polluted the air and wastes were dumped into waterways or buried in the ground.

In the 1960s, Americans became concerned about squandering what once seemed like the country's limitless resources. In 1962, Rachel Carson's book, “Silent Spring,” alerted the public to the hidden dangers associated with pesticide use. “Silent Spring” became a cornerstone of the environmental movement, showing how human actions can adversely impact human health and the environment.

Later in the 1960s, widespread media coverage of disasters such as the Santa Barbara oil spill and the Cuyahoga River fire created public awareness and concern about the threat that human activities pose to the environment. In 1968, the images of our planet sent back from Apollo 8, as a luminous blue sphere in the otherwise dark void of space, gave rise to feelings that our Earth's environment was something fragile and precious that must be protected.

When Earth Day founder, Sen. Gaylord Nelson, D-Wis., called for a nationwide Environmental Teach-in in 1969, he was mainly thinking of raising environmental consciousness on the nation's college campuses. However, news of the idea set off what Nelson later called "a truly astonishing grassroots explosion." More than 20 million people from all parts of the country participated in the first Earth Day. Events were held in 10,000 schools, 2,000 colleges, and over 1,000 communities.

In response to this public outcry for environmental protection, the U.S. government took several actions over the next six years:
1970: President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a mission to protect the environment and public health.
1970: Congress amended the Clean Air Act to set national air quality, auto emission, and anti-pollution standards.
1971: Congress restricted use of lead-based paint in residences and on cribs and toys.
1972: The EPA banned DDT, a cancer-causing pesticide, and required extensive review of all pesticides.
1972: Congress passed the Clean Water Act, limiting raw sewage and other pollutants flowing into rivers, lakes, and streams.
1973: The EPA began phasing out leaded gasoline.
1973: The OPEC oil embargo triggered an energy crisis, stimulating conservation of energy and research on alternative energy sources.
1973: The EPA issued its first permit limiting a factory’s polluted discharges into waterways.
1974: Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act, allowing the EPA to regulate the quality of public drinking water.
1975: Congress established fuel economy and tailpipe emission standards for cars, resulting in the introduction of catalytic converters.

Although Americans continue to work to protect and restore our environment 35 years after the first Earth Day, the impact of these early environmental laws is profound. The Clean Water Act is considered to many to be the most successful piece of environmental legislation. In 1972, only 36 percent of the nation's assessed stream miles were safe for uses such as fishing and swimming. Today, about 60 percent are safe for such uses.

At Tahoe, efforts to stop the steady decline in the lake’s water clarity are still strongly rooted in portions of the Clean Water Act that address nonpoint source pollution. At this year’s North Shore and South Shore Earth Days, you can learn more about these efforts and other environmental issues of our region. It’s also a chance to join in a worldwide recognition of how precious our planet really is.

The Lake Tahoe Report is a collaborative effort of the Lake Tahoe Environmental Education Coalition, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center and the California State Water Resource Control Board. For more information, contact Heather Segale, UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, (530) 583-3279, or logon to www.lteec.org.