Earth Day: Celebrating 50th Anniversary

SAN ANGELO, TX – On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans – roughly 10% of the U.S. population at the time – took to the streets, college campuses, and hundreds of cities to protest environmental ignorance demanding a new way forward for the planet. 

In fact, the first Earth Day demonstration is credited with launching the modern environmental movement, which is now recognized as the planet’s largest civic event. This movement launched a wave of immediate action, including the passage of historic environmental laws in the United States. The Environmental Protection Agency, Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts were created in response to the first Earth Day demonstration in 1970. 

The theme for this years 50th anniversary is Climate change. Although climate change has been quite the hot topic in recent years due to high environmental crisis, high carbon emissions, and overall poor air quality on our planet the recent social distancing and self isolation restrictions have shown many of the actions people are taking in response to the coronavirus outbreak could have a benefit of a reduced carbon footprint.

Since many major cities around the world are in some form of lockdown, some people have significantly reduced how much they drive, more people are working from home, and general consumption habits have drastically changed.

In todays society citizens are burning less fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas which correlates into reduced fossil fuel pollution which has both immediate health benefits in terms of better air quality, and longer-term climate benefits from reduced global heating. 

For the masses, movement, in general, has translated to the biggest of emissions changes. Carbon monoxide and other gas emissions are drastically lower in bigger cities. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates U.S. emissions from gas and energy use could drop more than 7% in 2020. These numbers are similar to the 2009 decline during the Recession.  

Remarkably, the Environmental Protection Agency has shown that Los Angeles, which has been under strict lockdown orders with the rest of the state since March 19, reported some of the cleanest air of any major city in the world. Currently It is the longest stretch of “good” air quality the Environmental Protection Agency has reported in Los Angeles since 1995.

However, for those looking to participate in this years activities individuals should visit the earthday.org website on April 22 as other activists chime in with live stream discussions including 24 hours of actions that you can take from at home, or wherever you may be.