Earth Day is coming up on April 22nd. Perhaps some of you are wondering, who started Earth Day? I’ll give you a multiple choice answer:
a. Greenpeace
b. God
c. Eddie Vedder
d. Gaylord Nelson, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin
The answer is (d). For years Senator Nelson campaigned for better environmental protection, cosponsoring countless conservation bills including the Wilderness Act and the Alaska Lands Act. He was looking for a way to draw attention to his concerns about the environment, and was inspired by protests and teach-ins during the Vietnam War.
Eddie Vedder was founded one year later in Vancouver, Greenpeace has been grossly misrepresented by its earthbound spokespeople as a tree-hating free-marketing unborn-baby-crusader, and God is a Seattle-based protest rocker with a waning audience. I think that’s right.
The first Earth Day was in 1970 and had 20 million participants. It was a juggernaut that paved the way for the Environmental Protection Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and created the momentum of the green movement today.
This is the first Earth Day without Gaylord. He died on July 3rd, 2005. So this April 22nd, when you do whatever you do to commemorate Earth Day - when you hold your sit-in outside a nuclear power plant decked out in hazmat attire, or feast with a group of friends at your local vegan restaurant, or gaze meaningfully at a cut-out picture of Leonardo DiCaprio – think of him.