Looking back on 50 years of Earth Days
About 1 million people participated in the original Earth Day demonstrations in New York City. Mayor John Lindsay closed Fifth Avenue to traffic so people could march. (Courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives/)The first Earth Day was a student-focused, grassroots movement that dealt solely with environmental issues in the United States. In the 50 years since, it has evolved into a worldwide day of action involving thousands of organizations, many of which are larger and have more money than those who took to the streets in 1970.Still, even as the issues have changed, the general message of saving the planet has remained largely the same. The first generation of participants targeted air and water pollution and hazardous waste—which are still a challenge today—but modern activists are also staring down problems such as climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and the fact that plastic seems to be everywhere.It’s in Earth Day’s...