The First Earth Day was 50 years ago

[doomsdave]

April 22, 1970.

How time flies. I was in grade school, and we decorated the classroom.

Concern over environmental issues was running high. The year before, the Cuyahoga river caught fire for the last of what had been many times.

Anyone remember?

(Yeah, yeah, two days to go yet. Oh, well.)

 

[Willowy]

Yep! We have a commemorative stamp!

A lot of people say "hurrhurr, fat lot of good that did". But that's not true. The environment has improved considerably since then. We'd all be dead by now if something wasn't done back then.
49 years of environmental victories, in photos

 

[Kat0121]

I was 3 months old so no I don't remember.

 

[doomsdave]

Oh, yeah.

When I first moved to California in 1985, we had smog regularly, and it was bad sometimes. Ever been through a Stage 5 smog alert?

And, I'll never forget that drive through Pittsburgh in Dad's old Buick during a temperature inversion. Maybe a stage 10 smog alert.

Fish were coming back to Lake Erie by the mid-1980s.