Ya'at'eeh Diné (original) (raw)

08:25 am - EARTH DAY!
It is Earth Day and I wanted to give you a little history and a little timeline of environmental events.

So go out and find your local Tree hugger and give him or her a hug.. even though they might be chained to truck or tractor...

How the First Earth Day Came About
By Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day

What was the purpose of Earth Day? How did it start? These are the questions I am most frequently asked.

Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political "limelight" once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour. I flew to Washington to discuss the proposal with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who liked the idea. So did the President. The President began his five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.

I continued to speak on environmental issues to a variety of audiences in some twenty-five states. All across the country, evidence of environmental degradation was appearing everywhere, and everyone noticed except the political establishment. The environmental issue simply was not to be found on the nation's political agenda. The people were concerned, but the politicians were not.
After President Kennedy's tour, I still hoped for some idea that would thrust the environment into the political mainstream. Six years would pass before the idea that became Earth Day occurred to me while on a conservation speaking tour out West in the summer of 1969. At the time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, called "teach-ins," had spread to college campuses all across the nation. Suddenly, the idea occurred to me - why not organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment?

I was satisfied that if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but worth a try.
At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air - and they did so with spectacular exuberance. For the next four months, two members of my Senate staff, Linda Billings and John Heritage, managed Earth Day affairs out of my Senate office.

Five months before Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the astonishing proliferation of environmental events: "Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam...a national day of observance of environmental problems...is being planned for next spring...when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in'...coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned...."

It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grassroots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U.S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. In mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D.C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities.

Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.

Timeline for Earth Day and General Environmental Events

On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was held. People all over the country made promises to help and clean up the environment. Earth Day has spread all over the global. On the first Earth Day 20 million people celebrate.

1970 President Richard Nixon creates EPA with a mission to protect the environment and public health.

1970 Congress amends the Clean Air Act to set national air quality, auto emission, and anti-pollution standards.

1971 Congress restricts use of lead-based paint in residences and on cribs and toys.

1972 EPA bans DDT, a cancer-causing pesticide, and requires extensive review of all pesticides. In 1996, the Bald Eagle was removed from the endangered species list, reflecting its recovery since the 1972 DDT ban.

1972 The United States and Canada agree to clean up the Great Lakes, which contain 95 percent of America’s fresh water and supply drinking water for 25 million people.

1972 Congress passes the Clean Water Act, limiting raw sewage and other pollutants flowing into rivers, lakes, and streams. In 1972, only 36 percent of the nation's assessed stream miles were safe for uses such as fishing and swimming: today, about 60 percent are safe for such uses.

1973 EPA begins phasing out leaded gasoline.
1973 OPEC oil embargo triggers energy crisis, stimulating conservation and research on alternative energy sources.

1974 Congress passes the Safe Drinking Water Act, allowing EPA to regulate the quality of public drinking water.

1975 Congress establishes fuel economy standards and sets tail-pipe emission standards for cars, resulting in the introduction of catalytic converters.

1976 Congress passes the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, regulating hazardous waste from its production to its disposal.

1976 President Gerald Ford signs the Toxic Substances Control Act to reduce environmental and human health risks.

1976 EPA begins phase-out of cancer-causing PCB production and use.

1977 President Jimmy Carter signs the Clean Air Act Amendments to strengthen air quality standards and protect human health.

1978 Residents discover that Love Canal, New York, is contaminated by buried leaking chemical containers.

1978 The federal government bans chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as propellants in aerosol cans because CFCs destroy the ozone layer, which protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation.

1979 EPA demonstrates scrubber technology for removing air pollution from coal-fired power plants. This technology is widely adopted in the 1980s.

1979 Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, increases awareness and discussion about nuclear power safety. EPA and other agencies monitor radioactive fallout.

1980 Congress creates Superfund to clean up hazardous waste sites. Polluters are made responsible for cleaning up the most hazardous sites.

1981 National Research Council report finds acid rain intensifying in the Northeastern United States and Canada.

1982 Congress enacts laws for safe disposal of nuclear waste.

1982 Dioxin contamination forces the government to purchase homes in Times Beach, Missouri. The federal government and the responsible polluters share the cleanup costs.

1982 A PCB landfill protest in North Carolina begins the environmental justice movement.
1983 Cleanup actions begin to rid the Chesapeake Bay of pollution stemming from sewage treatment plants, urban runoff, and farm waste.

1983 EPA encourages homeowners to test for radon gas, which causes lung cancer. To date, more than 18 million homes have been tested for radon. Approximately 575 lives are saved annually due to radon mitigation and radon-resistant new construction.

1985 Scientists report that a giant hole in the earth’s ozone layer opens each spring over Antarctica.

1986 Congress declares the public has a right to know when toxic chemicals are released into air, land, and water.

1987 The United States signs the Montreal Protocol, pledging to phase-out production of CFCs.

1987 Medical and other waste washes up on shores, closing beaches in New York and New Jersey.

1988 Congress bans ocean dumping of sewage sludge and industrial waste.

1989 Exxon Valdez spills 11 million gallons of crude oil in Alaska’s Prince William Sound.

1990 Congress passes the Clean Air Act Amendments, requiring states to demonstrate progress in improving air quality.

1990 EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory tells the public which pollutants are being released from specific facilities in their communities. The number of chemicals listed in EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory nearly doubled, from 328 in 1990 to 644 in 1999.

1990 President George Bush signs the Pollution Prevention Act, emphasizing the importance of preventing—not just correcting—environmental damage.

1990 President George Bush signs the National Environmental Education Act, signifying the importance of educating the public to ensure scientifically sound, balanced, and responsible decisions about the environment.

1991 Federal agencies begin using recycled content products.

1991 EPA launches voluntary industry partnership programs for energy-efficient lighting and for reducing toxic chemical emissions.

1992 EPA launches the Energy Star® Program to help consumers identify energy-efficient products.

1993 EPA reports secondhand smoke contaminates indoor air, posing serious health risks to nonsmokers. Today, more than 80 percent of Americans protect their children from secondhand smoke exposure at home.

1993 A cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s drinking water sickens 400,000 people and kills more than 100.

1993 President Bill Clinton directs the federal government to use its $200 billion annual purchasing power to buy recycled and environmentally preferable products.

1994 EPA launches its Brownfield’s Program to clean up abandoned, contaminated sites to return them to productive community use.

1995 EPA launches an incentive-based acid rain program to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions.

1995 EPA requires municipal incinerators to reduce toxic emissions by 90 percent from 1990 levels.

1996 Public drinking water suppliers are required to inform customers about chemicals and microbes in their water, and funding is made available to upgrade water treatment plants. Today, the vast majority of American households have safe drinking water, and receive annual reports on the quality of their drinking water.

1996 EPA requires that home buyers and renters be informed about lead-based paint hazards.

1996 President Bill Clinton signs the Food Quality Protection Act to tighten standards for pesticides used to grow food, with special protections to ensure that foods are safe for children to eat.

1997 An Executive Order is issued to protect children from environmental health risks, including childhood asthma and lead poisoning.

1997 EPA issues tough new air quality standards for smog and soot, an action that would improve air quality for 125 million Americans.

1998 President Bill Clinton announces the Clean Water Action Plan to continue making America’s waterways safe for fishing and swimming.

1999 President Bill Clinton announces new emissions standards for cars, sport utility vehicles, minivans and trucks, requiring them to be 77 percent to 95 percent cleaner than in 1999.

1999 EPA announces new requirements to improve air quality in national parks and wilderness areas.

2000 EPA establishes regulations requiring more than 90 percent cleaner heavy duty highway diesel engines and fuel.

2002 President George W. Bush signs the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act to reclaim and restore thousands of abandoned properties.

2003 President George W. Bush signs the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, helping to prevent forest fires and safeguard and preserve the nation’s forests.

2003 More than 4,000 school buses will be retrofitted through the Clean School Bus USA program, removing 200,000 pounds of particulate matter from the air over the next 10 years.

2003 Clear Skies legislation and alternative regulations are proposed to create a cap and trade system to reduce SO2 emissions by 70 percent and NOx emissions by 65 percent below current levels.

2004 New, more protective, 8-hour ozone and fine particulate standards go into effect across the country. President George W. Bush proposes the Clean Air Rules of 2004 that will make people healthier now and in the future. The result is more protection—faster—which ensures that clean air will be this generation’s contribution to the next.

2004 EPA requires cleaner fuels and engines for off-road diesel machinery such as farm or construction equipment.

2005 EPA issues the Clean Air Interstate Rule and the Clean Air Mercury Rule.

2006 WaterSense is launched to raise awareness about the importance of water efficiency, ensure the performance of water-efficient products and provide good consumer information.

These are the websites that were used to create this posting:
http://earthday.envirolink.org/history.html
http://holidays.kaboose.com/earth-day/history/earthday-history.html
http://www.epa.gov/earthday/history.html
Current Location: Seattle, WA
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Love Shack-B52s