“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
So, what are you working on for Earth Day this year? I’ve been asked this often over the past few months, and while most of our plans for this special 50th anniversary have now been upended by the pandemic, and the celebration will be nothing like we originally planned, I’ve had a lot more time to reflect back on those heady activist times that led up to the first Earth Day in 1970. What started as a bold idea from Senator Gaylord Nelson soon became an intense period of social and political activism that brought on a rapid and irreversible change in direction, not only for our society, but for many of us young idealistic students as well.
We called this event the First National Environmental Teach-In, and the intent was to have one day each year where teachers and students would focus their class, whether it was history or mathematics, solely on some aspect of the environment. The hope was that it would raise public awareness about the issues discussed in books we were reading such as Silent Spring by Rachel Carson and The Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlich. Our ultimate hope was to encourage positive environmental and societal change. When we first started in 1969, organized and encouraged by graduate student Denis Hayes, we had a few dozen students involved across the country. By the time activities started the morning of April 22, 1970, we had expanded to gatherings at 2000 colleges and universities and an estimated participation of 20 million.
This proved to be a turning point, a wake-up call, not only for our society, but also for many of us young activists. Before Earth Day there were no significant environmental regulations. By late summer the dialogue had reached Congress, and in December the EPA was authorized, and soon to be followed by the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. On a personal level, during the same time my entire career focus shifted from entering university teaching and research, and instead into a more satisfying career in community programs related to environmental sustainability.
How did all of this happen? It happened through the individual activism of millions of mostly young people. Earth Day 1970 arose at the end of a decade of intense social unrest. Many of us were disillusioned, not only by the killing in 1963 of JFK, but also by the later assassination of other role models including Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Every day brought more depressing news from Vietnam, for a war that seemed to never end. And we could see firsthand that pollution of our environment was not only serious, but steadily getting worse. The times were not positive.
Earth Day 1970 began as activism, fueled by student energy. The tragic events of the 60’s shocked us out of complacency and led to the mobilization of 20 million people, united in a desire to protect the world we all share. We pushed the system, and it responded. This resulted in a raised public awareness that led to significant environmental and social policy changes at the local and national levels.
Over the decades, and as long as we had a relatively progressive government, we built on this momentum and continued to make positive progress on a wide range of sustainability-related fronts, including alternative energy, endangered species protection, and CO2 emission reduction. On all of these issues, Congress and the President were usually on our side, and our role was to urge them to continue enacting progressive environmental and social legislation.
This was a good strategy until 2016, when everything dramatically changed. A week before the 2016 election many of us stressed the critical importance of voting thoughtfully and with a strategy based not on which candidate we liked, but on electing the party that had a platform upon which we could continue to further all the hard earned social and environmental progress we fought for since those heady days of protest in the 60’s. The alternative, and worst possible scenario, would be to wake up with a flawed president and a right-wing Republican congress determined to dismantle or reverse much of the legislation that was in place to protect our values, our human rights, and our environment.
Unfortunately the worst happened, and we now find ourselves not only with major environmental issues such as climate change, but also with a health crisis on our hands, and a president and a Republican dominated congress controlled by corporate money working from an agenda that goes against most everything we believe in, care about, and have worked for since the first Earth Day. Things look pretty bleak, and every day something happens to remind us that we are mired in a mess, and stuck with a government headed by a clueless embarrassment of a president, a dysfunctional senate, and government agencies that seem to be incapable of mounting swift and effective action to address not only the challenges of the worldwide pandemic, but also climate change and other global issues that will increasingly impact our future.
How does this relate to this year’s Earth Day and to the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in 2020? While many of the major events we had planned for will not happen, the on-line gatherings that are planned will still build community and help us feel connected in solidarity as we share difficult times for our society and the environment that sustains us. These events are necessary to building a coalition, but they have limited impact on reversing the really big challenges that threaten the viability of our lives in the time ahead. In addition to the pandemic, overpopulation, climate change, and depletion of natural resources are here now, and will continue to contribute to increasing sea level rise, drought, and food shortages, all of which will result in the migration of untold millions. We need swift and effective action now, and this will only happen through legislation and strong governmental regulatory action.
So the times are again right, today on Earth Day 2020, for the long needed start of an effective mass political response that will grow in strength right up to Election Day on November 3. Perhaps the time is right for millions of us to again band together in solidarity as we did in 1970 so that we can take back our country and preserve our collective futures.
What is my dream for Earth Day 2020? I visualize us working together, creating a huge and rising blue wave of progressive political action that will continue building momentum through the summer and fall, until it crests and breaks over the fall election in November 2020 as a progressive flood, a flood that will wash away the debris that is blocking effective and positive action on the important social and environmental issues we share.
So, what specifically do I plan to do in celebration of Earth Day 2020 to make this dream real? What specifically do I hope you will consider doing if you share this dream, so that we can build the momentum through Earth Day 2020 and into one of the most critically important elections of our lifetimes?
I suggest that one of the best things each of us can do is to assume personal responsibility for helping to get us out of the political mess we find ourselves mired in. How can we do that? How about making a commitment to take direct action in the months ahead, not only by doing small local activities, but more importantly through political action that is geared toward the big picture. We need action that will help ensure a livable environment into the future for us, for our kids, and for generations to come?
As we recover from the pandemic and its after effects, we will have to move our country back onto a progressive social and environmental track by electing a congress and president who care more about society and the environment than they do about money. That will only happen through political change, and that means one vote and one election at a time. Between now and November 2020, we need to do whatever we can so that we will wake up the morning after Election Day and joyfully find that we finally have solidly progressive control of local, state, and national government.
We can most effectively ensure this by devoting some of our time between now and November 3, 2020 to helping get out the vote, and especially the youth vote, for progressive candidates at the local and state level and a progressive congress and president in Washington.
What specifically can we all do?
1. Make a personal commitment to register, and then to vote, at every regular and special local, state, and national election that occurs between now and November 2020. And in order to ensure that you can actually vote, this has to include making sure before Election Day that you are on the eligible list in your voting precinct.
2. Commit to taking responsibility between now and November 2020 for discussing the issues we are facing with your immediate family and friends, and for explaining to them the importance of the vote. Encourage and support them to register and vote in every regular and special election, and if needed, be willing to help them.
3. Also take an opportunity to reconnect with friends that you have all across the country, and commit to calling one or two of them each month to catch up and also to discuss with them the issues and the importance of voting. Urge them not only to register and vote themselves, but to also contact their friends to do the same.
3. Post articles on your Facebook page about issues, and the need to network and get out the vote.
4. Give money or contribute time to organizations whose mission is to get out the vote.
These and other ideas are found in a project called Votes For The Earth 2020 that a small group of fellow activists from Earth Day 1970 and I have put together. In this we urge our family and friends from all across the country to take a pledge to help get out the vote.
All of these actions are not difficult to do, and they actually can be a great way to reconnect with friends during these days of lockdown when many of our customary activities and future plans are on hold. If we succeed at this, we will no longer need to spend our time and resources fighting to hold back conservative assaults on our rights and values, and we can return to supporting progressive activities that will move us forward in an environmentally and socially positive direction.
So on this Earth Day 2020, please choose to commit to taking action. Do it for yourselves. Do it for your family and friends. And do it for future generations to come, and for this beautiful planet that we all share.
Dr. Bruce Justin Miller was one of the student activists who planned and organized the first Earth Day in 1970. He directed the Office of Sustainability at the University of Hawai’i, drafted the nation’s first ozone protection legislation, and received the 1999 Environmental Hero Award from the Department of Commerce for his environmental work.