Earth Day: 25 Years Old
Photographs by Randy Olson
It was to have been a teach-in. The National Environmental Teach-In, the organizers called it, hoping to capture the spirit if not the politics of those earlier "sit-its" of the fractious 1960s. Instead, what emerged on April 22, 1970, was Earth Day, the greatest nationwide street demonstration the United States had witnessed since the tumultuous close of World War II. Twenty million Americans turned out that day to hear politicians and philosophers pledge allegiance to the planet by deploring its polluted condition.
A few speakers feared that the enthusiasm might soon fade away from the message of that day—that the planet’s plight demands an urgent response from each of us. They needn’t have worried. That message has now endured for over 30 years and has influenced the way thousands of Americans live their lives. This article profiles seven of them.
NGM 1995/04