3-Day Livestream celebrates 50th Anniversary of Earth Day!
~ John McConnell's Earth Day flag, based on photograph of Earth as viewed from Apollo 17 ~
Earth Day 1970
President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon plant a tree on the White House South Lawn to recognize the first Earth Day.
The first Earth Day celebrations took place in two thousand colleges and universities, roughly ten thousand primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of communities across the United States. More importantly, it "brought 20 million Americans out into the spring sunshine for peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform." It now is observed in 192 countries, and coordinated by the nonprofit Earth Day Network, chaired by the first Earth Day 1970 organizer Denis Hayes, according to whom Earth Day is now "the largest secular holiday in the world, celebrated by more than a billion people every year." Walt Kelly created an anti-pollution poster featuring his comic strip character Pogo with the quotation "We have met the enemy and he is us" to promote the 1970 Earth Day. Environmental groups have sought to make Earth Day into a day of action to change human behavior and provoke policy changes.
New York City
In the winter of 1969–1970, a group of students met at Columbia University to hear Denis Hayes talk about his plans for Earth Day. Among the group were Fred Kent, Pete Grannis, and Kristin and William Hubbard. This group agreed to head up the New York City activities within the national movement. Fred Kent took the lead in renting an office and recruiting volunteers. "The big break came when Mayor Lindsay agreed to shut down Fifth Avenue for the event. A giant cheer went up in the office on that day," according to Kristin Hubbard (now Kristin Alexandre). 'From that time on we used Mayor Lindsay's offices and even his staff. I was Speaker Coordinator but had tremendous help from Lindsay staffer Judith Crichton."
In addition to shutting down Fifth Avenue, Mayor John Lindsay made Central Park available for Earth Day. In Union Square, New York Times estimated crowds of up to 20,000 people at any given time and, perhaps, more than 100,000 over the course of the day. Since Manhattan was also the home of NBC, CBS, ABC, The New York Times, Time, and Newsweek, it provided the best possible anchor for national coverage from their reporters throughout the country.
Philadelphia
U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie was the keynote speaker on Earth Day in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. Other notable attendees included consumer protection activist and presidential candidate Ralph Nader; Landscape Architect Ian McHarg; Nobel prize-winning Harvard Biochemist, George Wald; U.S. Senate Minority Leader, Hugh Scott; and poet, Allen Ginsberg.
Earth Day Live
Earth Day Live is a three-day livestream commemorating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The event will streamed online as part of efforts to promote social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is being referred to as the largest online mass mobilization in history.
Planning
The event will be run from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET on April 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. Event is organized by youth climate activists, and will feature Joaquin Phoenix, Moby, Patricia Arquette, Jane Fonda, Robby Romero, Al Gore, Stacey Abrams in conversation with Climate change activists, scientists, and journalists. The event will also feature performances from musicians such as Jason Mraz, Angélique Kidjo, Emily Wells, Aimee Mann, Ted Leo, Jack Johnson, Questlove, Talib Kweli, among others.
Themes & Goals
Future Coalition executive director Katie Eder, who heads up the nine youth-led organizations that are coordinating the event, says that Earth Day activism had to be rethought due to technological advances in modern times.
“It’s a time to really rethink our strategy, we are really looking at this as a way to reimagine what a social movement can look like in a digital age.” said Katie Eder.
The event focusses not only on climate change and environment like the traditional Earth Day, but also on society's ability to combat the effects of climate change, such as the COVID-19 Epidemic.
“It’s not just about the environment and the climate,” “It’s also about building a society and an economy that’s going to take care of the people who’ve been affected by this crisis, the people who are on the front lines of this crisis, whether that’s through health care efforts or economic efforts.” said Naina Agrawal-Hardin,vement, one of nine youth led organizations organizing the event.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day_Live
https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/
Live Feed of Three-Day Earth Day Live events in the United States celebrating 50th Anniversary of the Green Movement's birth (on April 22, 1970). I was a Sophomore attending the University of California at Irvine, majoring in Theatre Arts, with an emphasis on Scenic Design and Technical Direction and celebrated the first Earth Day on campus there. This event was a catalyst for interest in The Mother Earth News (founded by John & Jane Shuttleworth in Hendersonville, NC) and how to build Earth-sheltered homes, install wind generators, mount rooftop solar panels, install heat pumps, etc. This was inspiration for design and construction of an 18" x 24" wood-frame cabin in the woods of central Maine during the fall of 1978. ~ Joseph David Henry Ware Bryan-Royster ~ Lantern of the Hermit ~
No comments:
Post a Comment