Photo: Candace Suerstedt
This week marks the 38th Earth Day. It seems impossible that nearly four decades have passed since the first one in 1970. Though I had grown up reading Rachel Carson's Silent Spring , I don't think I realized the full significance of that first Earth Day. I do remember that a number of folks dismissed it as yet another "hippie commie" activity and even the news magazines were unsure of how to portray the event.
The Uppity Wisconsin recalled that Newsweek was bemused, and somewhat dismissive, calling Earth Day "a bizarre nationwide rain dance" and the nation's "biggest street festival since the Japanese surrendered in 1945." Time said the day "had aspects of a secular, almost pagan holiday..." Newsweek asked, "whether the whole uprising represented a giant step forward for contaminated Earthmen or just a springtime skipalong."
At any rate, here we are 38 years later and the worst environmental predictions from those early years seem optimistic in relation to what has actually happened to our environment.
Trina from Carlsbad, CA
April 27, 2008 at 09:13 PM
Candace,
What an amazing photo. Where did you take it? I teach at a private high school in Encinitas and the other day I asked my students to tell me what they wanted to BE, DO, HAVE, and GIVE in life. The majority of them mentioned finding solutions for global warming as something they wanted to help with. They are definitely hearing the urgency and are very concerned about our earth. How would you feel about a Clinton/Gore or Obama/Gore ticket? Which one would you vote for?
Matthew C. Scallon
April 28, 2008 at 12:11 AM
Rachel Carson's book was junk science which is singularly responsible for the deaths of millions of Africans, people who, like people in this country, would have been saved through the proper use of DDT. Instead of blaming the overuse of DDT, a chemical whose inventor received a Nobel Prize for his work, Rachel Carson accused it being dangerous at any level.
Candace
April 30, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Trina,
Thank you for your comments. I took the photograph in Arizona on
IH 10, last September. As far as Gore being anyone's Vice President,
I can't imagine that he would want to. He is far more productive
where he is right now.
