Earth Day 1970-1995: An Information Perspective

"Earth Day is a commitment to make life better, not just bigger and faster; to provide real rather than rhetorical solutions. It is a day to re-examine the ethic of individual progress at mankind's expense. It is a day to challenge the corporate and government leaders who promise change, but who shortchange the necessary programs. It is a day for looking beyond tomorrow. April 22 seeks a future worth living. April 22 seeks a future."


The First Earth Day
Several events stimulated a greater concern for the environment in the 1960s, among them the proclamation that the Great Lakes were dead, -choked by what seemed to be an endless infusion of pollutants; the grounding of the"Torrey Canyon" off the coast of England, the first catastrophic oil spill from a supertanker; the publication of Rachel Carson's SILENT SPRING, a best-selling book which stimulated widespread concern over the misuse of pesticides and their devastating impacts to the environment.
By the late 1960s, Gaylord Nelson (D-Wisconsin) had become quite frustrated with a lack of environmental interest among his colleagues in the U.S. Senate. Hoping to stimulate popular interest for the environment, Nelson looked to America's non-violent campus activism for inspiration and proposed a series of environmental learning experiences, "teach-ins" for campuses across the nation.
Harvard law student Denis Hayes helped to organize one of these "teach-ins" at Cambridge, after going to Washington, D.C. to interview Senator Nelson, who made one of his most persuasive environmental arguments. Nelson convinced the young, idealistic student to coordinate the nationwide activities that would become the first Earth Day.
April 22 was chosen as the best date to reach the primary audience, college students; a Wednesday was chosen because it would be the least inconvenient for students who were called upon to participate in the event. There would be no competition with weekend activities, the weather in the northern states would be warming, it was after the annual southern migration of "spring-break" and well before final exams.
Earth Day, April 22, 1970, coincided with the 100th birthday of Vladimir Lenin, and it was also the birthday of the original environmentalist, St. Francis of Assisi, both interesting sidelights.
The result was a spectacular demonstration. Earth Day was a beautiful spring day across the United States.
Folk singer Pete Seeger performed at the Washington Monument and cars were banned from New York City's Fifth Avenue to accommodate the events. Public speeches, parades, marches, rallies on college campuses, and "teach-ins" launched the contemporary environmental movement. The first Earth Day was the largest focused demonstration in history. Congress closed its doors as politicians went home to attend or participate in local events. Legislatures from 42 states passed Earth Day resolutions to commemorate the date. An estimated 20 million Americans -students, teachers, and officials -took part in the activities.
The impact on the nation was tremendous. Environmental organizations blossomed and the membership ranks of established conservation groups swelled. The United States Congress, spurred on by the earlier passage of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, passed the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act revisions. By the end of the year, the Environmental Protection Agency was created.
Twenty years later, Earth Day '90 was a well-organized and well-funded event and saw the commemoration grow to more than 200 million participants in more than 140 countries. A new generation focused its concerns on recycling, saving the rainforests, reducing hazardous wastes and acid rain. New environmental magazines such as Buzzworm, Garbage, and E: the environmental magazine were launched amid a massive public relations and advertising blitz. The Earth Day logo was licensed and began appearing on T-shirts, reuseable cloth grocery bags, posters, and other souvenirs, ushering in what many saw saw as the overcommercialization of Earth Day.
The April 1995 issue of E: the environmental magazine, vol. 6, no. 2, provides a special report on Earth Day. In 1972, only two private organizations were described as providing general search retrieval services for the environment: EIC and the Institute for Scientific Information (1). Today, an examination of GALE'S DIRECTORY OF DATABASES reveals scores of databases in various formats which provide access to environmental information resources (2).
The Also found are informal chats discussing the influence of capitalism on the environment, lists of activities for students and community groups (clean-up programs, recycling awareness, energy efficient technologies, postcard and letterwriting campaigns, and a surprising number of "dead ends"). The January issues of Pollution Engineering are devoted to an annual environmental software review, and now provide a major compilation of resources available in electronic formats.
INTERNET DATABASES (ISBN 0-7876-0198-5, 478 pp., $95.00, 1995). More than 8000 references to databases are provided with nearly 1300 specific subject terms (from "Abnormalities (Animal and Plant) to Zoology, I counted 89 subjects related to the environment, energy conservation, and natural resources).
Additional listings of specialized home pages are also provided. earned degrees in biology, zoology, and library science, and has spent more than 20 years working in the areas of environmental toxicology and information management. Mr. Stoss also had the pleasure of being a Marta Dosa student at Syracuse, and will be teaching a reference course, Energy and Environment, in the School of Information Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville this summer.