Journey to a Green Sanctuary - April 2022

From Debbie Buchele, UUCGV Green Team

Arbor Day, Earth Day, and Richard Nixon!?!
 
Arbor day:
In the 1840’s when Nebraska was still a territory with few trees for fuel, building, shade or protection from the wind, J. Sterling Morton moved to that treeless prairie, from Michigan. He and his wife began planting trees on their property immediately. Morton, a journalist, and later an editor for Nebraska’s first newspaper, advocated for planting trees and orchards to improve Nebraska’s economy and landscape.
 
In the early 1870’s he proposed that the new state set aside April 10th as a day to plant trees. He also suggested offering prizes to communities and organizations that planted the most trees properly. The idea was enthusiastically welcomed, and on April 10, 1874 the people of Nebraska planted about one million trees.
 
In 1882, Nebraska declared Arbor Day a state holiday and changed the date to April 22., Morton’s birthday. The idea spread quickly through the United States, and around the world. Today National Arbor Day is officially the last Friday of April, but is often celebrated at different times in different locations based on the local climate.
 
Arbor Day...is not like other holidays. Each of those reposes on the past,
while Arbor Day proposes for the future.
- J. Sterling Morton
Earth Day:
With the publication of “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson, in 1962, awareness of ecological neglect and damage was rising. Damaging ecological effects were becoming more frequent, noticeable and concerning to Americans.
A few examples:
· Ohio’s Cuyahoga river caught fire in June 1969, not for the first time, as a result of industrial pollution being legally pumped into the river.
· Solid waste was being dumped into open trenches and unlined landfills, where it was often burned or leached pollutants in to ground water.
· Between 1947 and 1977 it is estimated that General Electric dumped 3 million pounds of PCB’s ( polychlorinated biphenyls into the Hudson River. This was just one of the companies legally dumping toxic waste into rivers across the country at the time.
· Birds, particularly birds of prey were being decimated by the effects of the use of DDT.
· Acid rain caused by emissions from power plants was reducing fish populations, and effecting crops, natural habitat and humans around the country.
· People were being harmed by the high level of lead in our air due to lead in gasoline.
 
But until the early 70’s protecting the environment was not part of our national political agenda. In the fall of 1969 Denis Hayes, a Harvard graduate student, managed to schedule a 10 minute meeting with Gaylord Nelson, US Senator from Wisconsin. Nelson had been talking up an idea for a national “teach-in” about environmentalism. That 10 minute meeting stretched into 2 hours. Hayes, looking for an internship or class project , ended up quitting school to become the coordinator of the student volunteers and a few of Nelson’s staff members to organize the first Earth Day.
 
Nelson’s vision was for a bipartisan effort and he recruited Republican Senator Paul McCloskey to serve as co chair. Nelson insisted that it be a decentralized event using the energy of schools, churches and community groups around the country to construct their own celebrations and actions. Minimal organization came from the DC based office, now dubbed “Environmental Teach-in”. April 22 was chosen as the date for the first Earth Day partly because it fell between Spring break and final exams, offering a greater chance of for involvement of young college and school age students. Coincidentally this was also Arbor Day, and many thought that the date may have been chosen for that fact as well.
 
According to the ‘Gaylord Nelson Collection’ at the University of Wisconsin:
“A commonly cited attendance figure for all Earth Day 1970 gatherings is 20 million. Realistically, the work of 9 people over 4 months could never have organized 20 million people. The accumulated estimates for public events in major cities amount to only a fraction of that figure. In truth, it would have been impossible to count Earth Day participants. Earth Day happened in so many corners and took so many forms that to capture its extent would have been as difficult for journalists in 1970 as it is for historians today.”
 
Not everyone was happy about this event. In fact President Richard Nixon became very paranoid about it, worrying that would be a bunch of anti war protesters getting together. According to Senator Paul McCloskey, he was so worried, that he had the FBI engage in surveillance of many of the events. McCluskey:
“I was friends with John Ehrlichman at that time, who was an environmental lawyer.” (referring to Nixon's domestic policy chief, who approved the Watergate break-in.) "And he called me after Earth Day — he was laughing as hard as I'd ever heard, and he said, 'Pete, I've got this report from [FBI Director] J. Edgar Hoover to deliver to the president tomorrow,' because the president was so paranoid that Earth Day was going to be a bunch of anti-war kids gathered that he had put them under surveillance by the FBI,"
"He read me part of the report: ‘There's a bunch of girls with flowers in their hair, and they're wearing only three garments, no bras, And it was very benign. They were a little drunk, [there was] a little pot, maybe a little love out under in the bushes, but these girls sat in the grass patting their dogs, and it was a very benign affair." "He was laughing about having to give this report to Nixon," ….McCloskey said.
Though the report was benign, its effects were not. On April 14, 1971, Nelson and former Senator Edmund Muskie, both Earth Day organizers, released copies of the FBI reports, revealing the surveillance. The reports were the latest in a series of stolen or released documents detailing FBI surveillance of U.S. citizens through a program called COINTELPRO. After the resulting Senate hearings, Hoover said he would severely curtail such FBI surveillance.)
 
The enormous and enthusiastic turn out for the first Earth Day, was estimated to be one tenth of the United States population at the time. The resulting calls for change by the public, lead to the Congress passing the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, as well as, President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican, creating the Environmental Protection Agency.
 
According to Ralph Nader, consumer advocate, “this is the major thing that turned Nixon around, it scared the hell out of him”.
 
Today Earth Day is celebrated around the world. Perhaps not with the enthusiasm of the first celebration but the spirit continues. New environmental dangers are being recognized, people continue to be educated and, hopefully, issues are addressed.
 
This year UUCGV Green team will be showing an environmental film addressing the importance of clean and abundant water, on Earth Day, at our local library, We have secured interest and sponsorship from the ‘Grand Valley Interfaith Network’ .
 
This is a FREE event. The hope is to turn this into something of a film fest or series in the future, to inspire not only awareness and action in our community, but joy for the wonderful earth we live on.
 
We hope that you will attend:
‘H2O: the molecule that made us’ April 23, 2022 at 3:00 pm at Mesa County Central Library.
 
Written by Debbie Buchele, who is proud to have possibly been under surveillance by the FBI when she helped plan and organize a two day Earth Day celebration, as a student at Fargo South High School, including speakers, panel discussion and some great films.