UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Today, Nittany Lions across Pennsylvania will celebrate Earth Day. But did you know Penn Staters participated in the first Earth Day?
The first Earth Day took place 52 years ago, on April 22, 1970, marking the birth of the contemporary environmental movement.
The 1960s had been a time ripe for change. Over 100 million vehicles drove on American roadways, producing over half of the country’s hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions. Deadly smog became more prevalent in cities around the country due to the lack of rigorous air quality standards. Pennsylvanian Rachel Carson garnered public attention when she chronicled the environmental harm caused by indiscriminate pesticide usage in her book "Silent Spring," published in 1962. In 1969, the Santa Barbara oil spill disaster and the Cuyahoga River catching fire frightened many and further exposed inappropriate corporate chemical management and disposal.
Environmental consciousness was spreading across the country, and Penn State students were taking notice.
Protests nationally in the 1960s and 1970s had begun to demonstrate their effectiveness in attracting public attention and necessitating policy changes from officials, as seen during the Civil Rights Movement. Only a week before Earth Day, students on the University Park campus had protested the Vietnam War, and anti-war tensions were high.
Sen. Gaylord Nelson, a junior senator from Wisconsin with a longstanding concern for the rapidly accelerating deterioration of the climate, decided to capture the energy of student anti-war protests for the growing awareness about air and water pollution, by announcing his plan to hold "teach-ins" on college campuses across the country.
According to "The Genius of Earth Day" by Adam Rome, at Penn State, student organizers Ed Beckwith and Tim Palmer, with the support of hundreds of additional students, planned a series of events that would be hosted the weekend leading up to “Earth Day.” Activities included a keynote lecture from renowned conservationist Rep. John Saylor of Johnstown, followed by film showings, exhibits, and an interdisciplinary discussion panel addressing concerns about population, air quality, water resources, solid waste disposal, land-use conflicts, transportation and environmental health.
The events culminated on Earth Day, when a number of Penn State professors devoted their classes to environmental issues, after being successfully persuaded by student planners. Environmental education and advocacy discussions were hosted downtown and gubernatorial candidates gave speeches before the evening gave way to an air of festivity. The streets were closed for participants to enjoy folk music, dramas and films.
The year of the inaugural Earth Day, Penn State and more than a thousand other colleges and universities across the nation found themselves united in a coordinated effort to spread awareness about environmental degradation. Earth Day became firmly ingrained in American, and later, international culture by enlisting diverse, intersectional and bipartisan citizen and political support and by accomplishing this while employing generally peaceful tactics.
Subsequently, broad national changes were implemented, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the National Environmental Education Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. These laws continue to help protect the health and well-being of all Americans and have helped to prevent the extinction of hundreds of species of flora and fauna.
Numerous Penn State sustainability initiatives can be connected to seeds planted that week in 1970. Modern developments such as the establishment of the Sustainability Institute, the Institutes of Energy and the Environment, the Center for the Business of Sustainability, the Carbon Emission Reduction Task Force, and LEED certifications of Penn State buildings all point back to the principles espoused at the dawn of the modern environmental movement. These and other initiatives over the decades demonstrate Penn State’s ongoing commitment to nurturing sustainability.
Penn State is dedicated to tracking its sustainability progress and participates in numerous sustainability progress assessments, such as the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System, or STARS. The University's No. 1 ranking among the participating Big Ten schools reflects its leadership within the sustainability sphere, even as room remains to advance its commitment to sustainability even further.
Visit sustainability.psu.edu to discover how to get involved with sustainability work at Penn State, and how to keep the spirit of that first Earth Day alive.