Earth Day: 50 Years and Counting

It's been 50 years since the first Earth Day burst onto the scene. 50 years! I remember the first one, because all of the students at Fairbury High School were allowed to wear jeans to school that day (!) and we were dismissed for the afternoon, assigned in groups of three or four to pick up trash in a particular part of town. I was with two or three other Freshman girls, working along Highway 136, just a couple of blocks from where my folks live now.

It was a gorgeous, sunny, spring day, a perfect day to walk and talk to our friends as we worked, interrupted only when a passing motorist stopped to ask for directions to Highway 72. (As I recall, Carla, the most outgoing one of our group, informed him that we had no idea where to find Highway 72, since none of us were old enough to drive.)

The trash we picked up that day was a little different from the trash I pick up when I walk in Gering now, five decades later. There were plenty of candy wrappers then, and way too many cigarette butts, along with some broken liquor and beer bottles. Our country had not yet developed into a throwaway society, so there were no plastic bags, because groceries were packed in sturdy paper bags that nearly everyone saved and reused. 

I live just a block from Gering High School now, so I often pick up students' fast food containers, especially cups and straws, as well as discarded drink bottles. When I was in high school, we usually bought pop in returnable, glass bottles, so we didn't pick up pop cans then, although we might have found a few smashed beer cans along the way. Nobody bought bottled water, because we had perfectly clean water flowing from the faucets at home. If we wanted a sweet drink, we drank Kool-Aid, made in a two-quart pitcher at home. If we ordered root beer from A&W, we drank it there, in frosted glass mugs. Anyway, we didn't pick up any plastic drink bottles or fast food cups, because they didn't exist then.

When I researched Earth Day, I was surprised to find that there are actually two Earth Days, both started in the spring of 1970. One is celebrated annually in March, on the first day of spring, while the other date is always observed on April 22nd. Today's date is celebrated around the world, in more than 190 countries, to demonstrate support of environmental protection. Earth Day has become the largest secular observance in the world, promoting clean habitat everywhere on Earth.

Unlike today, the general population in 1970 was not really aware of the dangerous side effects of common, everyday practices. The ongoing observance of Earth Day is proof that one person can make a big difference. If it weren't for Senator Gaylord Nelson (WI) acting on his convictions, we might still be driving gas-guzzling cars, and industries might still be spewing toxic, smog-inducing, smoke and waste into the air and water. Senator Nelson was disturbed that environmental issues were not being addressed by either politics or the media, so he started the first Earth Day in hopes of promoting environmental awareness in our country. His concern must have struck a chord with Americans, because 20 million people, including numerous school children and college students, participated in that first Earth Day's activities. We continue to observe Earth Day because it serves as a reminder that our whole planet can be protected when each of us makes a conscious effort to take care of our environment as we go about our everyday lives.

This is the trash I picked up today as I walked: some plastic and glass bottles, several straw remnants, a few cigarette butts, some miscellaneous foil and paper wrappers, an ancient zip-lock bag, plastic bottle caps, a grocery receipt, and a piece of used painter's tape, among other things. All in all, it was a typical "haul."

I often pick up trash when I walk. I am trying to remember, not too successfully yet, to take in my reusable, cloth, grocery bags when I shop. We pay $4.00 a month for the privilege of having a city truck pick up our recyclables at the curb, even though Bill insists that recycling should be free. The people in my family utilize reusable water bottles whenever possible, although we do have our basement refrigerator full of perfectly good, bottled water that Bill rescued from a dumpster a while back. (Someone else's trash became our treasure.)

I don't know what we can do about the plethora of drink bottles, fast food containers, and Walmart bags that litter our communities these days. Until people decide to forgo convenience for reuse, and take personal responsibility for their trash, I guess I will have to resign myself to picking up other people's garbage when I walk.

When our current crisis is over, it might be time for a renewed push, in the schools, for environmental awareness. Maybe we should turn all of April into Earth Month. Or, maybe, we should each take personal responsibility for the small part of the Earth we call home.

What are you doing to protect the Earth?


The heavens belong to the Lord, but he has given the Earth to all humanity. Psalm 115:16