My husband Jim remembers when advertisements about an environmental event happening on April 22, 1970 at San Jose State had everyone excited: “It was like the Rolling Stones were coming to town.” Fifteen years old at the time, he and his friends went to check it out. He could not believe the number of people who showed up, or the hype that it caused. But the history of Earth Day is confusing. While April 22, 1970 is seen as the birth of the modern environmental movement, it was not the original Earth Day, nor the purpose of the original mission.
In the spring of 1969, The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), promoting world peace, held a conference in San Francisco. It was at this conference that peace activist and San Francisco resident John McConnell proposed that the Spring Equinox be called “Earth Day” to honor the Earth and promote peace. An Earth Day Proclamation was issued and signed by thirty-six world leaders. On March 21, 1970, San Francisco celebrated McConnell’s first Earth Day by ringing peace bells. The United Nations picked up this tradition the following year and has been practicing it ever since. McConnell used the photo The Blue Marble for his design of an Earth Day Flag, inspired by the photo when it was first published in Life magazine. If you Google Earth Day Flag (assuming like I did that there was only one Earth Day), you will be led to McConnell’s flag. Most people who use it are probably using it for the wrong event.
At the same time that McConnell was giving his UNESCO speech, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, having been deeply affected by the three million gallon oil spill in the Santa Barbara Chanel in California, proposed a national “teach-in” on pollution reduction. Nelson hired Denis Hayes, an environmental activist, as National Coordinator. Hayes not only named this teach-in “Earth Day”, but decided to hold it only a month after McConnell’s event. It was meant to be a one-time educational event at nationwide schools, colleges and universities. But like Jim, the sheer number of people who showed up that day took everyone by surprise. As a result of its spectacular success, Earth Day became an annual event (despite anti-environmental critics trying to marginalize it by pointing out that April 22nd was Vladimir Lenin’s birthday and therefore an obvious communist plot).
Today, San Francisco celebrates Earth Day[1] every April 22nd with a festival in the Mission District. Multi-cultural musicians, artists, chefs, speakers and vendors focus on sustainability and the dangers of fossil fuel.
[1] Visit them at https://earthdaysf.org
