It is Earth Day today. The first Earth Day was founded in 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson:

What was the purpose of Earth Day? How did it start? These are the questions I am most frequently asked.

Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political “limelight” once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour. I flew to Washington to discuss the proposal with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who liked the idea. So did the President. The President began his five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.

It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grassroots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U.S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. In mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D.C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities.

Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.

In these time where everything is dependent on electronic thingamajig, there are better way to get rid of these product than simply throwing it in the trash. Many companies offer some form of recycling electronic products, such as:

• Intel – Offering recycling programs in five states.
• Circuit City Stores – Will give you a gift card for your items.
• Dell – Offer free recycling of your old computer with a purchase of a new one.
• Best Buy – They will collect and recycle electronics destroyed by the effects of Hurricane Katrina that have been brought to a staging area in Orleans Parish, Louisiana.
• Sprint Nextel – Offer prepaid shipping labels so you can sent them any of your old cellphones to recycle.

You can find more events from the official Earth Day web site.

Have a Happy Earth Day everyone.

Published Saturday, April 22nd, 2006 at 10:05 am in Eco/Green.