I still remember the first Earth Day, back on April 22, 1970. Like most kids in Bloomington, then a still new and rapidly growing Twin Cities suburb, I walked to my school, the aptly named Oak Grove Elementary, which had been built a few years earlier at the top of a rise in the midst of a large stand of bur oak savannah.
The notion of an Earth Day had gotten a lot of attention. Our teachers talked about it. Walter Cronkite talked about it on the evening news. The Minneapolis paper reported on it, all part of a burgeoning environmental movement that came out of the 1960s. It was an awakening for many that we humans weren’t taking care of our only home in this vast universe and that we needed to change our ways.
I remember carrying a garbage bag to school that morning, looking to pick up litter, thereby doing my part on this most notable day. As I recall, I found a pop can.
Of course, as they say, it’s the thought that counts and that first Earth Day did make a difference in the thinking of millions of people, myself included, creating a groundswell for a long list of major environmental bills, both in Washington and St. Paul, most of which became law.
When we hear people say that Minnesota has strong environmental laws, we can thank that first Earth Day and the broad-based environmental movement it helped to generate, for that. Almost all of Minnesota’s strongest environmental laws were passed in the early 1970s and the same was true in Washington. The Clean Air Act (1970). The National Environmental Policy Act (1970). The creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (1970). The Clean Water Act (1972). The Endangered Species Act (1973).
For those who believe such laws don’t make a difference, or that government is part of the problem, as Ronald Reagan would convince many Americans a decade later, the truth is that these laws have proven to be remarkably effective at achieving the goals they set forth. Most major cities are no longer choked with smog on a regular basis, even as their populations and the number of cars and trucks on the road have doubled or tripled since 1970.
I still remember my first and only visit to Jay Cooke State Park, with a 1970s school group. I remember several of us standing on a walking bridge over a St. Louis River rapids, only to have our eyes burning within seconds from the toxins aerosolized in the rushing water. Up at the border, the Rainy River was a noxious brew, choked with harmful chemicals and wood pulp, virtually devoid of aquatic life. These rivers, like many others across the state and the country, have been brought back from the brink. It’s been decades, now, since an American river caught fire.
Back in 1970, the sighting of a bald eagle was considered a once-in-a-lifetime experience they were so rare. Several hundred wolves in northeastern Minnesota were all that remained of a wolf population that once spanned the entire country. Trumpeter swans, pelicans, and peregrine falcons were all on the verge of disappearing forever. Today, these and many other species are thriving again because the Endangered Species Act put a premium on making that happen.
None of this was by accident. It happened because average people showed they cared and pushed our government to take action. Every single one of those laws, passed during that brief window of environmental awareness and focused concern, has made a tremendous difference and proven that the levers of government, when deployed toward good ends, can be a remarkably positive force. Government is part of the problem only when we allow it to be.
Looking back, that first Earth Day was a reflection of American optimism. It was a time when Americans still truly believed, and legitimately so, that they had a voice in their governance and that the efforts of average people could still make a difference. And that belief and support for the environment was shared across party lines. It’s worth noting that in 1970, the first Clean Air Act passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 73-0. The Clean Water Act passed the Senate 74-0, while the U.S. House passed the measure 366-11. In 1973, the Senate voted 92-0 to pass the Endangered Species Act, while the House voted 390-12 in favor.
We live today in a far more cynical age, when the notion of environmental protection has been caught up in the ongoing culture wars. For an unfortunately large number of us these days, the right to pollute has become part of the same cultural milieu as the right to strap on an AR-15 for a trip to the grocery store. This strange cultural development has left a partisan divide as deep and wide as the Grand Canyon, and makes the impact of that first Earth Day and the important legislation it sparked all that more important as a key turning point in American history. Indeed, it is doubtful that any of the laws passed in the 1970s heyday, could pass Congress today due to almost universal Republican opposition. It’s ironic that the legislative successes of the 1970s, and the effectiveness of the laws passed during that era, have made it possible for some to mistakenly believe such laws aren’t needed any more. Which makes it all the more critical that these landmark protections, that have made such a difference to Americans’ quality of life, be protected from efforts to undermine them.
The world is certainly much changed since the day I walked to school with a garbage bag hoping to do my small part to help the environment. And we should celebrate the victories that were achieved in that era on behalf of the environment, even as we recognize that our toughest and, ultimately, most existential, environmental battles still lie ahead. And, unlike in the past, those battles won’t be fought with a nation united.