How the First Earth Day Came About

EnviroLink ^ | Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day

[Eye On The Left]

How the First Earth Day Came About

By Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day

At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air - and they did so with spectacular exuberance. For the next four months, two members of my Senate staff, Linda Billings and John Heritage, managed Earth Day affairs out of my Senate office.

Five months before Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the astonishing proliferation of environmental events:

"Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam...a national day of observance of environmental problems...is being planned for next spring...when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in'...coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned...."

It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grassroots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U.S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. In mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D.C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities.

Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.

http://earthday.envirolink.org/history.html

[Eye On The Left]

Isn't it amazing, Earth and Lenin were both born on April 22.

Vladimir Lenin
Владимир Ильич Ленин
Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars
In office: November 8, 1917 – January 21, 1924

Born April 22, 1870
Died January 21, 1924
Political party Bolshevik Party
Profession Politician, revolutionary

". . . on April 22, 1970, Earth Day was held, one of the most remarkable happenings in the history of democracy. . . "
--American Heritage Magazine, October 1993

Founded on Lenin's 100th birthday? --yeah, it's a "coincidence". LOL.

Earth Day 1970 (the very first Earth Day):
"The nationwide event included opposition to the Vietnam War on the agenda, but this was thought to detract for the environmental message.
Pete Seeger was a keynote speaker and performer at the event held in Washington DC. Paul Newman and Ali McGraw attended the event held in New York City."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day#Earth_Day_1970

From David Horowitz's FrontPageMag.com/DiscoverTheNetwork.org:
Profile: PETE SEEGER

*Musician, folksinger, songwriter, and political activist

*Joined the Communist Party in 1942

*"I'm still a Communist" -- Pete Seeger, 2004

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1619

Also see: America’s Most Successful Communist [Pete Seeger]
By Howard Husock
http://www.city-journal.org/html/15_3_urbanities-communist.html

[patch789]

the first earth day, was what day of the week?

[MrB]

“liberals” freak out when you expose their “environmentalism” as simply a cover for communism.

Nothing they do is up front and honest, because exposing their underlying motives would destroy their movement. They know this, and we should too.

[rock_lobsta]

Today’s Earth Day? WOOHOO!!!

Anytime I can find an excuse to fly the Stars and Stripes, fire up the grill and cook some dead animals, I do it!

What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to partake in her bounty and honor her most noble country?

[Eye On The Left]

the first earth day was what day of the week?

I give up. What day was it?

[DuncanWaring]

Wednesday.

[SoCal Pubbie]

I dunno, but I remember the assembly we were forced to attend in Jr. High school. Even then I was thinking, what the hell?

[Eye On The Left]

"the first earth day was what day of the week?"

Wednesday.

I have to ask...is there some special significance to it being a Wednesday? Was Lenin born on a Wednesday? Was Obama?

[DuncanWaring]

I’d say there’s no particular significance to it being a Wednesday ... just a random day in the middle of the week ... that just happened to be the hundredth anniversary of the birth of V. I. Lenin.

[Bookwoman]

I believe that God gave us stewardship of the earth. It is up to us to take care of it. Just like people try to keep their homes clean and tidy so they are a pleasure to live in, I believe residents of planet earth should take care of the planet and not pollute it with poisons.

I also believe that the earth as an ecosystem was created with built-in checks and balances. If we damage it too much, we will suffer the consequences in terms of weather upheaval and other calamities.

Just because the leftists have coopted this cause and spewed all manner of falsehoods and propaganda in the name of their nefarious agendas does not mean that we are off the hook in terms of taking care of our planet.

“Waste not, want not,” my father always used to say!

Our house has active and passive solar heat as well as a woodburning stove, which uses renewable resources we grow ourselves, in addition to heating with more conventional methods. We recycle, grow our own vegetables, and live a very simple lifestyle. My husband and I both work from home and try to be as self-reliant as possible.

I live in an area that is cold much of the year, so when spring comes, I love to bask in the warmth and the new growth of greenery. I appreciate what God has given us on this earth and celebrate this gift every day. How can one be close to the earth and not see the Hand of God?

Rather than condemning the environmentalists, why don’t we pray that they see the Hand of God?

[Eye On The Left]

I’d say there’s no particular significance to it being a Wednesday ... just a random day in the middle of the week ... that just happened to be the hundredth anniversary of the birth of V. I. Lenin.

Now you're talking! :)

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Depending on which website you look at he was also born on April 10th and May 4th.

[Froggie]

We buried a car in the area behind the football practice filed at my high school. I’m sure we caused more damage with the environmental hazards that created than we symbolically “cured” by this meaningless gesture. But then all educators, even back then, were flaming knee-jerk liberals.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Don't forget the murderous thug,professional protestor and all around waste of life Ira Einhorn who took most of the credit for starting Earth Day.

And it is no coincidence that he picked Lenin's birthday.

[kickonly88]

I think I will celebrate by riding my Shovelhead hybrid chop; it burns gasoline AND rubber!

[Condor51]

How the First Earth Day Came About

Uh ... IIRC it was God.

1. In the beginning God created heaven, and earth.
   
2. And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.
   
3. And God said: Be light made. And light was made.
   
4. And God saw the light that it was good; and he divided the light from the darkness.
   
5. And he called the light Day, and the darkness Night; and there was evening and morning one day
   
6. And God said: Let there be a firmament made amidst the waters: and let it divide the waters from the waters.
   
7. And God made a firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament, from those that were above the firmament, and it was so.

It goes on, but that's about it. That's how the "First Earth Day" came about.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Ah yes!....Lenin in Fremont.

[Eye On The Left]

Depending on which website you look at he was also born on April 10th and May 4th.

Which websites, CNN's, MSNBC's?

Here it is from a source you can trust (at least on this issue), Pravda!

"More than half of Russians estimate the role of Lenin in the country’s history as positive, yet they support the idea of taking his body out of the Mausoleum and burying in some cemetery. This information was received by Public Opinion Foundation's survey of 1,500 Russians on the eve of the 134th Lenin’s birthday anniversary (April 22)." http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/363/12582_Lenin.html

"[April 22] 1912 - Pravda, the 'voice' of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, begins publication in Saint Petersburg."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_22#Events

[mikrofon]

In H.S. at the time, we were dispatched in groups to pick up trash in the neighborhoods around the school. Coincidentally, a number of us were trying to sell raffle tickets for a school club, so we went door-to-door asking the homeowners if they had any litter they wanted removed, and by the way, would you like to buy some tix?

We actually “cleaned-up” pretty well on the raffle side (not so much trash) ... a little entrepreneurship on the socialist’s big day ;)

[ChicagoConservative27]

My friend is a teacher. The school is forcing the kids to bring a “earth friendly lunch”. Unreal.