Environmental movement

Historic conservation movement / Modern environmental movement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_movement

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

"Greening Our Blue Planet"

The 60's era was rightly known for its activist movements, from civil rights to the peace movement, to 'counter culture', social justice, and the beginnings of what would become a global environmental movement. Many of the threads for the green era began with the 'teach-ins' and the first Earth Day in 1970 as students expanded a 'counter culture' movement. Across the country, the first Earth Day 'teach-ins' that many students initiated, including your GreenPolicy siterunner, from the student movement and college campuses including my own at the University of Southern California reached out to all students and all across the U.S. and globally. A worlwide environmental movement was in the process of being born...

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

http://www2.epa.gov/aboutepa/guardian-origins-epa

"American environmentalism dawned as a popular movement on a mild spring afternoon in 1970. Wednesday, April 22nd, brought blue skies, light breezes, and temperatures in the 60s to New York City and Washington, D.C. Much of the rest of the country enjoyed similar conditions. On that day, the influence of nature had particular meaning; the nation held a celebration of clean air, land, and water. Encouraged by the retreat of winter, millions participated."

"The first Earth Day may have been prompted... by the recent moon landings. When the astronauts turned their cameras homeward in December 1968, capturing first images of a blue planet, the world looked upon itself with awe and new whole-Earth understanding..."

Years later, the Environmental Protection Agency publish its history, including these notable phrases:

"By late 1969, the subterranean rumblings heralding the impending explosion could already be heard... "Suddenly out of the woodwork come thousands of people talking about ecology."

"It was at just this time that Congress sent to the President a remarkable bill known as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis)--looking back at the "Environmental Decade" in 1980--called NEPA "the most important piece of environmental legislation in our history."

Senator Gaylord Nelson recalls that right after the passage of NEPA, "the issue of the environment exploded on the country like Mount St. Helens."

○

SJS / Siterunner: Senator Nelson proposed an Earth Day event amid what he called the 'rumblings' and many of us in the student movement organized optimistically with our new 'whole Earth' vision. The profound issues of 60s, civil rights and the war in Vietnam led to what we called "the big picture". This led to seeing with new eyes, with planetary awareness. It became a time for looking ahead and alternatives to politics- and business-as-usual. The modern environmental movement sprang forward and, on April 22nd, the first Earth Day raised its flag.