Earth Day is observed every year on April 22.

That observance has occurred every year since 1970 and has grown to a global observance. According to many sources, the first earth day was observed by 20 million Americans. I was one of the many people who participated in one of the local demonstrations as we walked out of high school on that beautiful spring day. I am pretty sure that all of the organization for the event was done by word of mouth and the fact that it spread from school to school with the only mechanism being telephones that were attached to a wall is pretty amazing. There were no personal computers, definitely no cell phones and even if we did have access to media, it was a very competitive time for media attention. The Vietnam war was still raging, civil rights groups were clamoring for attention and the women’s rights movement was in full swing. It’s stunning that something like the environment could gather any traction at all.

There were precursors to the event.

Concerns about the environment included air and water pollution, widespread use of unleaded gasoline and industrial pollution. Living in western Pennsylvania, we had daily reminders about how fragile the environment had become. Between the steel mills belching out smoke filled with toxins and the vestiges of unchecked coal mining for over a hundred years; our rivers and air were struggling to support the communities that they touched. There were days that were so bad, we had to stay indoors for risk of getting sick. The night skies were always lit up from the open-hearth furnaces that produced the mountains of steel and wasteful byproducts.

In the early 1960’s, a woman from Pittsburgh wrote a book called Silent Spring which highlighted the dangers of pesticides used in countries around the world. Her book was heralded as a call to action for the globe and resulted in the banning of pesticides like DDT in emerging nations. An interesting side note is that she was neither a chemical expert nor a scientist, but her writing skills were convincing enough that no one really questioned her findings. In more modern times, most of her work was questioned by serious scientists and many blame her for many deaths in those countries which no longer were able to fight the diseases that came from the pests which were being eliminated by them. There are many who also came to her defense and question the scientists that came out with supporting data. It is a fascinating story filled with twists and turns.

Probably one of the biggest influencers of the first earth day was the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill.

There had been other oil spills before this particular spill resulted in more than three million gallons of oil into the pristine waters off of California resulting in massive short-term damage to the ecosystem. The effects to the wildlife and shoreline motivated a fledgling environmental movement and resulted in leaders organizing teaching events and walkouts across the country.

Note: The Persian Gulf War Oil Spill (1991) is the largest uncontrolled release of oil measuring between 380 – 520 million gallons of oil into the Persian Gulf. 35 years later, little of that oil remains as an influence.)

I grew up in a very conservative household. We listened to Big Band Era music every night (none of that rock and roll music) and worshiped at a conservative church. My dad would not recognize what that church has become now but at the time, Billy Graham was considered a standard. Richard Nixon had not yet been entangled by Watergate and all of the drama that would follow was still in the future. We would have been embarrassed to leave the house with even a minor tear in our blue jeans and our shirts had collars (often with buttons). Our hair was kept to a manageable length, and we addressed grownups by Mr. and Mrs. unless they had a more formal title like Pastor or Doctor. Children were seen but rarely heard and God help your soul if you sassed.

But things were changing rapidly.

Television was still controlled by the major networks, and the weekly periodicals were all starting to highlight the divisions of the country. Each of the aforementioned conflicts made for compelling headlines and that sold advertising. Not only would a national movement like earth day drive young people into a frenzy, but colleges would also move from being places of higher learning to places where groups of young people could be molded into action teams to drive the change. The fever pitch would be reached in May of that year at a place called Kent State where old met young on a new kind of battlefield. Lives would be lost and other lives would be impacted forever.

Right now, high school kids around the country are being urged by unseen entities to walk out of their schools and protest against the people who are trying to enforce our nation’s laws. The existence of social media is the driving force in many of these events, but I think it’s much more than just a faster way of communicating. Like the concentrated power of old media back in my youthful days, social media has become a principal catalyst that has unleashed one of the primal forces of nature. That force is the collective desire to be part of a collective. It is the immature belief that the older generation just gets everything wrong and only this generation is smart enough to fix things.

My generation was right about some things and wrong about others. As we have aged, it’s interesting how blurred those lines have become in the rear-view mirror.

I believe that our efforts probably collectively helped end the war in Vietnam. I also believe that our earnest desire to save the environment definitely changed the industrial equations of the world. But the existence of the internet and AI has revealed that there were many complex forces working behind the scenes all during those change years. While there were some with pure hearts and sincere desires for a world filled with sunshine and rainbows, there were also forces working behind the scenes that were not so pure.

When the Soviet Union fell in the 1990’s, secret documents started coming to light about how much the Soviets were engaged in helping to push the narrative about things like Vietnam. The Cold War resulted in hidden efforts to influence the free world with chaotic situations. The KGB infiltrated many of the protest groups and gave them tangible support as well as intangible assistance. Journalism was a tool then just as social media is a tool now. In today’s technical world, it is incredibly easy for a foreign influencer sitting at a keyboard to spread disinformation cleverly cloaked as truth across the length and breadth of the world in a millisecond. The amount of information that can be transmitted without any degree of accountability or regulation is beyond the average person’s ability to fathom. Determining what is true or untrue is becoming nearly impossible for the average person.

The final piece of this puzzle is the inherent bias all of us are capable of. If you want to believe a particular point of view, you can do a quick AI search and find hundreds if not thousands of supporting “facts” to justify your belief. From that point on, people become entrenched in their understanding, and the result is more conflict with people who have done the exact same action to justify their opposing view. Facts have become increasingly fungible.

Before I conclude, I have a confession to make.

On that first earth day, despite my conservative upbringing, I had a compelling reason for walking out. You see, there was this girl who believed in all that stuff… and I knew she was going to be there. I wonder how many young men have a similar motivation during the current walkouts.

The last thoughts are my late in life reflections

In the end, nature has a way of balancing it all. Despite our best intentions, there comes a day when we pass from this world. No amount of influence or no firmly held opinion will change that fact. There are two types of people on that day. Those who still cling to the idea that a higher power exists and created a brilliantly designed future where the old ways pass into darkness. And those who will be unhappily shocked to learn that they were wrong about there not being a God of creation and redemption. I find it interesting that those who believe the first are always categorized by being “right” and those that don’t are categorized by being “left”.

Matthew 25:31-34 New International Version

The Sheep and the Goats

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.