April 22, 1970

The first Earth Day.

I was 17 years old, a junior in High School. I remember walking the 3 miles to school that day.

What had happened? In the late 60's and early 70's there was a lot of excitement, a lot of discussion, a lot of new (and some old) ideas going around. At my school, some of the teachers decided it would be a good idea to form "discussion clubs" where the students COULD discuss almost anything. A teacher would be present, perhaps to guide or monitor some of the discussion. The teacher could refer us to resources, books, articles, more information on a given topic.

We started off discussing the things that were of major importance to us: Vietnam and drugs. But we were hearing a lot about eco-action, and we started talking about the earth, what we were doing to hurt it and what we could do to help.

The very first Earth Day, we walked to school. (Okay, the kids who lived more than 5 miles away didn't). After that, we tried to take the idea of car-pooling seriously. We talked about mpg instead of horsepower when we talked about cars we wanted.

Did we make a difference? I like to think that we helped. Because we were willing to become aware, and to discuss recycling, conservation, pollution, and helping the earth, we were a small part of what became a large movement.

Forty years later, there is still a lot to be done. But starts have been made. Programs are in place, and people are aware.

And forty years later, Earth Day is still a day when all of us think about our planet and how to make it a little better, a little cleaner, a little heathier for ALL of us.

In the forty years since then, we've heard/learned about how clear-cutting the Amazon rainforest hurts us here in the US.

Earth day helped us all to realize that we ARE all in this together. We only have this one planet, and ALL of us are responsible for keeping it functioning for the next generations. We may not do much, but planting a tree, picking up trash, not littering, walking instead of driving when you're going less than a mile; all of these things help planet Earth.

Earth Day not only commemerates the beginning of serious ecology awareness to many of us, it also marks a day when we began to realize that we are one people on one Earth.