In 1970, as a 25-year-old graduate student, Denis Hayes, organized the first Earth Day. The resounding success of that event, which brought out 20 million Americans — 10 percent of the United States population at the time — helped spark the modern environmental movement.
The decade that followed saw some of America’s most popular and powerful environmental legislation: updates to the Clean Air Act and the creation of the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Fifty years later, we have different environmental challenges, some much larger, most notably global climate change. Despite the existential threat of climate change, some politicians are denying it exists and rolling back environmental protections, failing to live up to the Paris Agreement, and dragging their feet on climate action — solely to make more money as they pollute — with no thought of protecting the Earth for their children and grand-children.
Will there be an Earth Day in another 50 years? Will there still be a viable Earth that supports life?
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