Appreciation of Earth Day

April has become a month of celebrating our planet, Earth, after the inception of Earth Day. This year we celebrate the 53rd anniversary of Earth Day and its monumental achievements of mobilizing over 1 billion people. I will admit I grew up in the era of Earth Day being a standard day of service or celebration thinking all generations grew up the same way…how I was wrong. 

Before the 70’s the United States was in a booming time in history and air pollution was an accepted daily issue while oil spills were a somewhat common occurrence. It was not until 1970 that US Senators decided to act and mobilize for teach-in days on college campuses.[1] These teach-in days would be what we consider today to be community outreach events where organizations from all different backgrounds come together to enlighten the community on opportunities. 

Earth Day is one of the rare occurrences in our nation’s history where Democrats, Republicans, rich and poor, and urban and rural folks came together to support a common cause, the environment. With such backing, the United States then created the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. So, at a time when industry was king, how did our government come together to enact change while now in 2023, we seem to be at a stalemate for continued change? 

Newly release PEW Research shows that 8-in-10 Democrats, 1-in-4 Republicans, and only 54% of Americans [2] believe that climate change is a threat. How do we seem to be backward while at the same time putting more time and attention into our efforts on Earth Day, which is essentially environmental activism? 

I ask this open-ended question as I sit here not sure of the answer myself. I am hopeful that we can all find common ground to make where we live a better place. So, if you have the chance to go out and do good this Earth Day, please do! SJVCEO will be making sure to attend events and share as much information as possible. We hope to see you out there.

Sources:

[1] https://www.earthday.org/history/

[2] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2023/04/18/for-earth-day-key-facts-about-americans-views-of-climate-change-and-renewable-energy/