4/22/2013 (Day 113) Earth Day Evolution

The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970, which was also Arbor Day that year...apparently that is partly why the date was chosen. It was an idea who's time had come as ecological consciousness was beginning to spread after Rachel Carson wrote ''Silent Spring" in 1962, which was a book about work she'd done throughout the 1950s which documented the toxic affects of synthetic chemical pesticides on the environment, and especially bird populations. It was founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson who says:  "the idea that became Earth Day occurred to me while on a conservation speaking tour out West in the summer of 1969. At the time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, called "teach-ins," had spread to college campuses all across the nation. Suddenly, the idea occurred to me - why not organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment?"

"I was satisfied that if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but worth a try."

"At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air - and they did so with spectacular exuberance. For the next four months, two members of my Senate staff, Linda Billings and John Heritage, managed Earth Day affairs out of my Senate office."

Five months before Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the astonishing proliferation of environmental events:

"Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam...a national day of observance of environmental problems...is being planned for next spring...when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in'...coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned...."

"It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grassroots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U.S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. In mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D.C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities."

"Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself."

http://earthday.envirolink.org/history.html

I don't remember the first Earth Day, but I do remember the "crying Indian" in 1971, when I was 6 years old. He was the one responsible for my early ecological awareness and, as I recall it now, some of my first emapthic experience of feeling the pain of Gaia. I used to cry when I saw that commercial and could feel, in the depths of my soul, the pain of this man for what we were doing to the Earth. I did not have the understanding of it then to know what it was about or what to do with it, and it would be many years before I did, but I that it know it had a major impact on me and that it planted the earliest seeds of ecological awareness in my 6 year old brain. 

For me, Earth Day has been changed by the shadow of the BP Oil Disaster since 2010, when on April 20, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform blew, resulting in more than 200 MILLION gallons of crude oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days while the world stood helplessly by watching failed attempt after failed attempt to cap the rogue well. In the early days I had resisted looking because I knew I would be devastated, but then a friend posted the video below, and, as I listened to it, I fell to my kitchen floor and sobbed from the deepest depths of my Heart and Soul for my beautiful Gulf of Mexico...the place where I had spent some of the most glorious days of my entire life, only a short 4 months prior, basking in the Gulf's clear, warm waters. I felt physically pained for all the Life that was being suffering and dying as a result of the blatant human carelessness of those greedy for profit who continued to rape and pollute Gaia with no regard for consequence. After hearing this message, I knew it was something I had to find the strength to face, because I could no longer look away. 

After that, I was riveted to the live feed of the well head and spent more hours than I could count simultaneously lamenting over, and praying for, an end to the nightmare that was playing out. Facebook was still a fairly new part of my life at that point, and provided the chance to connect with people who were down there, on the front lines. It became a lifeline to information about what was REALLY happening down there for all of us who were concerned with knowing the truth. What was portrayed in the news was regularly downplayed and so we counted on ''real people'' walking the beaches and documenting the damage for our news. We stood by, helplessly horrified by they fact that, on top of the toxic crude oil, they were spraying MILLIONS of gallons of Corexit, a highly toxic dispersant that was, as science would later prove, actually making the whole thing an even WORSE health and environmental nightmare. We watched as many got sick and died over the months and years that followed. It was horrific and, in many respects, I felt completely impotent to do much about it, other than to offer support to those suffering via various facebook groups and friendships, and to share what they were telling us and showing us in their videos and posts with others to ''help spread the truth." I cried more tears than gallons of oil and dispersant combined in those 87 days and the months that followed. I realized, some time later, that as I connected with more and more people on the front line of the disaster and it's aftermath and others around the world who were also riveted,  I was slowly becoming a part of a global awakening that seemed to be happening as a result of the spill...just as the message from the whales and dolphins had proclaimed. 

In the years that have passed since, I have experienced my own awakening process and witnessed the widespread awakening of humanity around me. It is a beautiful thing that, despite the bleak seeming outlook that the mainstream media tends to portray, is rippling and growing each and every day, even as we speak. It hasn't exactly been easy to learn how to be happy in this world, where, it would appear that humanity seems hellbent on bringing ourselves to the very brink of destruction before finally making the sweeping changes, that we are ALREADY capable of, but have not been allowed to utilize, due to fact that the 3rd dimensional system of "power over," held firmly in place for millenia, by those who have sought to control the planet, has suppressed and persecuted anyone who tried to share them with humanity. But, if you look beyond the illusion of death and destruction painted by those who seek to keep you enslaved, you will see the Light rooted firmly in Gaia and Her people, and you will see the beauty in Nature and how life ALWAYS regenerates and will forever continue to do so, despite our human meddling. Life prevails, and Gaia, our precious Earth Mother, is no exception...She will always prevail, and our enduring Souls will continue...whether humanity gets it right, and comes together to create a collective Heaven on Earth or fails miserably and self destructs may very well be up to your collective decision. As things heat up in the Ascension process, any one of us may choose to leave the party for higher realms (as have so many in recent months a) at many points in the process. I've faced several potential ''check out'' points in the past decade or so...I've decided to stick it out, take my roll as a cheerleader for Love and Light, and take my chance with my fellow humankind. From where I sit, I think we're making progress. What do you think?