Wednesday, April 22 is Earth Day. This year’s theme is Our Power, Our Planet with an emphasis on the daily actions that support our planet, an orb that floats in the darkness of space.
The Earth Day Revolution
On December 7, 1972 Apollo 17 astronauts on their way to the moon captured an image of earth that became the symbol Earth Day. Now called the Blue Marble, the iconic photo taken 28,000 miles away from planet Earth depicts a fragile planet surrounded by the darkness of space.
Two years before, Senator Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day as a way to force environmental issues into public discourse. The Blue Marble demonstrated what was at stake. There is only one planet Earth.
“My primary objective,” Nelson remembered, “was to show the political leadership of the nation that there was broad and deep support for the environmental movement.” [EPA Journal]
On that first Earth Day, 20 million Americans, demonstrated against the impact of 150 years of industrial development. Those demonstrations were a response to environmental factors that could no longer be ignored.
In 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring to raise awareness of the link between pollution and public health. Specifically, Carson stressed the hazards posed by pesticides, particularly DDT, which could kill hundreds of different species – insects, birds, and mammals, including humans.
Scientists developed DDT in 1939. Its first major application was to clear South Pacific islands of insects that could cause malaria. It was also used as delousing powder. In 1945, the war was over, and DDT was available for civilian use.
Carson’s book described how DDT entered the food chain, how it remained toxic in the environment, how it harmed animals and the world food supply. Silent Spring became an unlikely bestseller. As a child, I remember watching crop-duster biplanes fly over agricultural fields next to the highway. In middle school, I read Silent Spring and wondered about the air I breathed that day.
Years later, as if to stress the environment’s fragile balance, two major events captivated public attention.
On January 28, 1969, Union Oil’s Platform A near the Santa Barbara coast had a blow-out. Within 10 days 80-100,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into the Santa Barbara Channel and onto the beaches of Santa Barbara County. At the time, it was the largest oil spill inAmerican history. Approximately 3500 sea birds as well as dolphins, elephant seals and sea lions were killed. Public response resulted in numerous pieces of environmental legislation.
That summer the surface of the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire at a time when the public was watching. The Cuyahoga River was the site of various industries. The economy was booming though the river was polluted, and its surface was usually covered in oil slicks.
On June 26 an oil slick on the river caught fire and burned for half an hour. The fires were so common, no one thought much about it until Time magazine and National Geographic both published articles. The Cuyahoga River became a symbol of industrial pollution.
Earth Day & Environmental Legislation
The publicity surrounding these incidents and public outrage led to legislation to protect the environment, continuing public interest in the issue, and that first Earth Day in 1970.
In 1969 Congress passed a National Environmental Policy Act requiring all federal agencies planning projects that would impact the environment to submit Environmental Impact Statements.
By 1980 Congress had passed the Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Toxic Substances Control Act, Resource Conservation & Recovery Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and established the Environmental Protection Agency. Congress also banned the use of DDT and leaded gasoline.
In 1990 President Clinton awarded Senator Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his leadership in founding Earth Day.
Environmental research and a better understanding of climate change and its effects led to the Paris Climate Agreement signed by 196 nations in 2016. The signatory nations pledge to reduce the rise of the global surface temperature. The United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement in 2020, returned to it in 2021, and withdrew a second time in 2026.
Fifty-four years after Apollo 17 astronauts shared the photo that became known as the Blue Marble, an astronaut on Artemis II took this photograph of earth appearing behind the moon. In 1972 the Blue Marble inspired people to see our earth as a fragile planet surrounded by the darkness of space. If we don’t stand together fighting for the environment of our vulnerable earth, this photo may come to represent mankind’s greed as darkness covers our planet.
Care for our environment is everyone’s responsibility. Our Power, Our Planet.
Illustrations & A Few Sources
The Blue Marble taken Dec 7, 1972 by an Apollo 17 astronaut; First Edition Cover of Silent Spring; Crop Duster Bi-Plane over Imperial Valley Farms, 1972; Union Oil Platform A; The Manitowoc Sailing up the Cuyahoga River, 2025; Environmental Protection Agency poster: Environment + Economy = A Win-Win, 2014; Photo by Artemis II astronaut of Earth from the dark side of the Moon. The Story of Silent Spring. NRDC. Aug. 13, 2015. Lorraine Boissoneault. The Cuyahoga River Caught Fire at Least a Dozen Times. Smithsonian Magazine. June 19, 2019. Gaylord Nelson. “Earth Day ’70: What it Meant.” EPA Journal.
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