By Suie Choi ’20, Feature Writer

As April approaches, people count down the days to the annual holiday celebrated worldwide by over a billion people on April 22. This day is Earth Day. It is the most popular secular holiday in the world after New Year’s Eve and International Workers Day. Earth Day is not only a day for changes in human behavior, but also a day for activism that provokes policy changes.

In the early 1960s, Americans were becoming more aware of environmental issues such as the effect of pollutants in the air. This awareness was primarily sparked by Rachel Carson’s 1962 national bestseller Silent Spring, which shed light on and documented the adverse environmental effects caused by the use of hazardous pesticides and chemicals. In addition, the fire on Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River in 1969 showed the dangerous effects of chemical waste disposals. After witnessing the ravages of these events, Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin and an advocate of environmental issues, proposed the concept of Earth Day in 1969 at a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) Conference in San Francisco.

April 22, 1970 was the first Earth Day. This marked the day when groups that had been fighting against environmental issues, such as oil spills, polluting factories, extinction of wildlife, and toxic dumps, realized that they shared a common mission. The nation reached a rare political alignment, enlisting support from both Democrats and Republicans, rich and poor, and city dwellers and farmers. Twenty million Americans united from coast to coast and rallied on streets, parks, and auditoriums to advocate for a healthy environment and sustainability. Thousands of universities and colleges throughout the nation organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. By the end of the year, the first Earth Day led to the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts and the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Given the recent climate reports and the introduction of bold climate legislation, this past Earth Day was exceptionally meaningful. With President Trump’s aggressive steps to allow more planet-warming pollution from power-plant smokestacks and vehicle tailpipes and pulling out of the Paris Agreement, a worldwide pact in which almost every nation agrees to cut carbon emissions, there is a shifting political climate regarding environmental issues. Regardless, the meaning and the actions taken on Earth Day still remain. Sophia Ludtke ‘20, Co-President of the Green and Blue Committee, says: “For me personally, the day serves as an opportunity to reflect on big and complex environmental issues from climate change to environmental injustice, but also to think about the small changes I can make in my own life to reduce my carbon footprint.” Sophia recently participated in a local climate strike in Morristown, New Jersey to advocate for mandatory climate education in grades kindergarten through eighth grade and the declaration of a national emergency on climate change.

Even today, regardless of one’s political affiliation or socioeconomic status, people still celebrate Earth Day, and the global meaning and impact of Earth Day still demonstrates the core values of its original proposal.