Sifting through my elementary school memories, I remember pictures of broken eggshells in bird nests and white foam floating on bodies of water. I also recall seeing images of mounds of garbage, a river on fire, belching smokestacks and dead sea mammals and sea turtles caught in fishing nets. Crowds chanted on the evening news. Dad talked about something called conservation. It was the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, and I was nine years old.
I vaguely remember any Earth Day events at my school except for a poster contest. What I do remember, however, is my growing interest in nature, science, and environmental topics and how it pained me to hear about animal species in danger of disappearing from the earth forever because of us.
Some 20 million people stood up for their environment and themselves on that first Earth Day—about 10% of the population in the United States at the time. Their demonstrations and undeniable voices caused a flurry of changes to laws in America. That set in motion a ripple effect of global change, too. Over the half century that followed, I was one of millions of beneficiaries of the courageous acts from the citizens who stood up on Earth Day 1970 and from the lawmakers who listened. After all, they helped protect my water, my air, and my web of life, too.
I am sure many of them have passed by now, but here is my letter to them anyway:
Dear Earth Day 1970 Activists and Lawmakers,
Each of you stood up for me on that first Earth Day so I had a chance for a better, healthier life. Thank you.
To the 1970’s Activists: Maybe you were afraid. Maybe you didn’t know if you could make a difference. Maybe you surprised yourself. Maybe this was the bravest thing you’d ever done. Or, maybe it was no biggie because you felt you had been born to stand up to make your voice heard. No matter what your situation was then, to each of you who stood up or participated in a clean up or a “teach in” on the first Earth Day, I owe so much to you. Your collective momentum and individual acts of courage and strength most certainly changed my life—not just physically with every breath I have taken and every glass of water I have had since then, but in significant ecological and spiritual ways, too. Together, you created an inspiring model. You showed what can happen when many people stand up and become a single force for change. You have also given me hope that the significant environmental and social changes needed in these times can really happen if enough people stand up and don’t give up.
To the 1970’s Lawmakers: When you listened to the voices of the people and rose to answer their calls for change, you showed us what democracy looks like in action. That’s what gives me hope today. Following your model, we can answer the calls for change across our planet today so our young people have a habitable planet and a chance at a future worth living for. Can there be anything more reasonable for them to ask of us than that?
Lawmakers, I’m sure you felt pressured from many directions but you kept your sights on what was best for a greater good and for the longer run. Your swift response and bold actions gave me—the next generation—a healthier future and a better life. What more could a kid ask for? Since then, the poisoned river down the road from where I grew up is now cleaned up. The Bald Eagle was brought back from the brink of extinction and there isn’t a day when I see one soaring overhead when I don’t marvel at how Americans joined together to help this magnificent species recover.
In short, Earth Day 1970 Activists and Lawmakers, you gave a damn and it changed everything for me.
As we approach the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, my vision for Planet Earth is for more people to give a damn and to do it for the kids and grandkids, too. Yes, a lot has changed since the first Earth Day including having about 4 billion more people on this planet, but a similar opportunity lies before us today: We can rise to the challenge of the times—like you did. We can see to it that kid-inspired changes are made beginning this year. Like the changes you made fifty years ago arose from a collective conscience, so it can be for us again.
We are a global family with one future. Like it has always been, we are in this together. It is a phenomenal thing—if we choose to let it guide us and unify us. Whether it is 1970 or 2020, we have always wanted the same thing, haven’t we? To have a good experience of living. No matter who we are or where we live, doesn’t that start with clean water and clean air and a life-sustaining planet? You demonstrated that you knew this was true fifty years ago. Yet today, some of our leaders turn their backs on the interconnectedness of life on this planet and go to extremes to deny science. They build walls instead of building up the wills and hopes of our children.
More and more young people are trying to show us the way as they stand up for their planet and their future through climate strikes around the globe. How many of us are listening? Let us join with them and rise. Let us persevere in that movement until we know we are giving our children and grandchildren the future they deserve to have passed on to them.
Together, citizens and lawmakers, students and teachers, statesmen and stateswomen, you seized the moment fifty years ago.
It is our time now.
Most sincerely,
Patty Dreier, global citizen and author of Empowered: One Planet at a Time