05.01.07

The Dirt About Earth Day

Posted in General at 8:57 pm by MamaSaid

Okay, I will admit I have been a distracted blogger over the past couple of weeks because I got involved with some community Earth Day activities to clean up our neighborhood and a little piece of the world. With all the Earth Day hype starting to calm down a week later, I had a chance to think a bit more about the day and asked myself – what’s it really all about and when did it actually start?

Although I thought answering this question would be relatively simple, it wasn’t – perhaps I should have known?! Anyway, although my community creates a lot of action about April 22 being Earth Day, there are actually two Earth Days that are celebrated. The other Earth Day is actually internationally celebrated, through the United Nations, on the day of the March equinox, which usually happens around March 21 or March 22, a month prior to the Earth Day publicized in the United States.

Earth Day was actually introduced in 1969 by John McConnell at a UNESCO conference during the same year that he designed the Earth flag. Joseph Alioto, San Francisco Mayer, proclaimed the first Earth Day on March 21, 1970. On February 26, 1971, UN Secretary General U Thant signed a proclamation stating, “May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life.”

Another Earth Day was introduced on April 22, 1970 and was intended to be an environmental “teach-in” much like the “sit-in” that was used to protest the Vietnam War. A U.S. Senator and environmental activist from Wisconsin named Gaylord Nelson took the leading role in organizing the April 22 celebration and over 20 million people participated that first year. The National Coordinator of activities for Earth Day was Denis Hayes, a graduate student from Harvard that was chosen by Senator Nelson. Hayes said that his mission was for Earth Day to “bypass the traditional political process” and the Vietnam War was protesting during the first Earth Day celebration. My husband, a Vietnam veteran, remembered this and it did have an impact on the soldiers, although not necessarily a positive one because they did not feel supported by some of those protesting the War. In fact, some of the protesters blamed the veterans, rather than the government who sent them, and greeted them by spitting at them and throwing things.

The bottom line seems to be that McConnell was interested in space exploration, Earth’s equinox on the first day of spring and Earth’s place in the universe, while Nelson was a environmentalist and politician who sought to teach as many people as possible about the saddened condition of the Earth. McConnell stated about the two days, “…there is a the problem of power. Most of us are media made. Our opinions and conduct are influenced by the paper we read and the TV or web programs we view. In all of this, big money or corporate and government power in a large measure decides what happens.” So the question is, whose intentions were pure and who was trying to influence the masses and it appears rather self-explanatory.

At the Earth Day Peace Bell Ceremony held at the United Nations on March 21, 1977, Margaret Mead stated, “Earth Day is the first completely international and universal holiday that the world has ever known. Every other holiday was tied to one place, or some political or special event. This Day is tied to Earth itself, and to the place of Earth in the whole solar system. At this moment, when I climb the steps and ring the Peace Bell, it will be the Equinox in every part of the world and we can celebrate it at once on behalf of every part of the world.”

Regardless of the day Earth Day is celebrated, it is certainly a successful way of bringing people together internationally for a singular purpose. Earth Day is now observed in at least 175 countries and the Earth Day Network says Earth Day is, “the largest secular holiday in the world, celebrated by more than a half billion people everyday.” I find it interesting that a day designated to the Earth, peace and togetherness has to be in dispute. I can only assume that because opposing Earth Day would have made any politician appear to be an inconsiderate ass (not that they don’t look that way anyway), they had to make it on a different day to cause some type of controversy around an otherwise pleasant concept.

I also want to note some of the relevant events that occurred on the “second” Earth Day, designated by a politician to be April 22, especially in light of the conspiracy theories discussed on this blog. On April 22, 1915, Germans first introduced poison gas. Then, on April 22, 1945, Hitler admitted to defeat from his underground bunker. Finally, on April 22, 1993, the dedication of the Holocaust National Museum took place in Washington, D.C. Interesting coincidences occurred on April 22 – which makes it piques additional thought about why this second date was chosen.

Either way, I intend to keep on celebrating the Earth and trying to be a conscientious member of the planet every day.