Earth Day, 1970

From The Washington Post, April 23, 1970.

Earth Day Stirs the Nation

By Richard Harwood
Washington Post Staff Writer

A great outpouring of Americans--several million in all likelihood--demonstrated yesterday their practical concern for a livable environment on this earth.

School children by the hundreds of thousands roamed through parks, city streets, and suburban neighborhoods in communities across the land collecting tons of litter cast off by a consumption-oriented society.

The academic community--ranging from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington to the Mesa Community in Arizona--lectured the old and the young on the fragility of the world they inhabit.

Within 200 years, said Dr. J. Murray Mitchell of the Federal Environmental Science Services Administration, air pollutants--mainly carbon dioxide--may cause the earth's temperature to rise to levels that will threaten life itself.

Already, 6 billion tons of carbon dioxide are pumped into the atmosphere each year from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. About 53 million tons come from automobiles in the United States.

The American business community, ordinarily indifferent to hostile mass demonstrations, endorsed Earth Day and announced some practical actions of its own to deal with environmental problems.

Scott Paper Co. of Philadelphia publicized a $36 million project to control pollution at a plant in Washington state and said it may spend another $20 million on a plant at Winslow, Maine. . . .

A new pollution control division was created yesterday by Rex Chainbelt, Inc. of Milwaukee. The company's board chairman, William Messinger, had declared earlier that "in a short time, I believe, it will be considered a criminal act to pollute."

There were other pragmatic responses yesterday to the growing environmental movement. Gov. Nelson Rockefeller of New York, wearing a button that said "Save the Earth," established a new Environment Department in the state government.

Gov. William T. Cahill of New Jersey signed a bill creating an Environmental Protection Department.

Lt. Gov. Paul Simon of Illinois proposed the creation of an environmental institute at one of the state's universities.

So many politicians, in fact, took part in yesterday's Earth Day activities that the United States Congress shut down. Scores of senators and congressmen fanned out across the country to appear at rallies, teach-ins and street demonstrations.

The oratory, one of the wire services observed, was "as thick as the smog at rush-hour;" that was hardly an exaggeration, for Earth Day attracted enthusiastic support from all bands on the political spectrum--the New Left, the Old Right, the continuous Center. . . .

Sen. John G. Tower (R-Texas), to oilmen at Houston: "Recent efforts on the part of private sector show promise for pollution abatement and control. Such efforts are in our own best interests. . . ."

Sen. George McGovern (D-S.D.), to students at Purdue University: "Government and industry will each have to spend $100 billion in the next two decades if we are to stamp out pollution.". . .

Besides the oratory, the teach-ins and the clean-up brigades, many street theatricals were staged to dramatize environmental issues.

In Washington, 1.700 college students and school children marched to the Interior Department. A couple of quarts of oil were poured out on the sidewalk as a protest to oil spills in the ocean. Government workers later cleaned up the puddles.

At Indiana University, one of the stops on Sen. Nelson's transcontinental speaking tour yesterday, 20 girls tossed birth control pills at the Earth Day crowd. They dressed as witches, danced in a circle and chanted: "Free our bodies, free our minds.". . .

New Yorkers blocked off Fifth Avenue for two hours while 100,000 people strolled in the sun, listened to guitar players and watched Mayor John V. Lindsay drive by in an electric bus. . . .

In Birmingham, Ala., where a pall of smoke from heavy industry hangs over the city, an organization called Greater Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution, or GASP, sponsored a "right to live" rally at the municipal auditorium. . . .

At the University of Texas in Austin, the campus newspaper came out with a make-believe inside page dated April 20, 1990. The headline said: "Noxious Smog Hits Houston; 6000 Dead.". . .

Overall, however, the Earth Day activities were placid and energetically constructive. One of the few non-participants among public figures was President Nixon who sent word through a press secretary that he "feels the activities show the concern of people of all walks of life over the dangers to our environment."

The White House statement assessed no blame. New York's Mayor Lindsay, however, had an opinion"

"People are the real polluters. It's a matter of habit for they have been littering for years."

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, in a speech at Philadelphia, disagreed with the Lindsay analysis. Industries are the worst polluters, he said, and they can be curbed only by a "radical militant ethic" among consumers.