Worldwide the environment was being destroyed, the landscape was scarred by endless illegal dumps, toxins from industrial waste leaching into the groundwater and forests were laid waste by clear-cutting, thus destroying watersheds. The Cuyahoga River in Ohio literally caught fire 10 times between 1868 and 1969. It was a horrible delusion that there were endless resources available and the ignorance of the immediate dire consequences that could no longer be denied.
The beginning of the Earth Day movement was initiated by Senator Gaylord Nelson, who while travelling became distressed at the degradation of the environment, the very real trouble that our physical country was in, and sought a way to change that decline. He lectured in 25 different states to bring attention to this crisis, approached Attorney General Robert Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy without success. Watching the phenomenal media success of the anti-war demonstrations and the grassroots support that undergirded them, he announced publicly, “That in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate.”
This grassroots movement spawned new businesses, sciences, industries, legislation and has become a political force to be reckoned. It literally changed the very culture: Phrases such as ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ became a mindset. Soon afterwards in 1970, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established, the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, the Clean Air Act, Occupational, Health and Safety (OSHA), et al. Entire businesses and sciences were developed regarding landfills and Waste Management, even enabling the recapturing of methane gases from landfills to create electricity.
Another offshoot is the movement for Green Building and utilizing recycled building materials, a combination of recycled building materials, both brick and wood from salvagers: The bonus is a tax credit for doing so.
To reduce our dependence foreign oil alternative fuel sources are no longer in the realm of futuristic science fiction: windmill farms, hybrid cars, solar power, geothermal plants operate in our western states and around the world.
In Vancouver, Canada, the core members of the 1970–71 “Don’t Make A Wave Committee,” later formed Greenpeace with one rickety 80 foot ship: They are now an international force to be reckoned with.
And all these changes were done at the grassroots level, with old, black rotary telephones, often hostile news coverage, without fax or Internet, but solely orchestrated by people passionate for serious change.
P.S.: I was there, this post came from a paper I wrote for a History class at DeVry. (I did get an 'A'). I simply wanted to defend the 1960s to classmates who were born long after that decade: we were so much more than just Woodstock.
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