Earth Day - Earth Day 1970 in Philadelphia

Earth Day 1970 in Philadelphia

Earth Day 1970 in Philadelphia gave birth to Earth Week, April 16–22. It was created by a committee of students (mostly from University of Pennsylvania), professionals, leaders of grass roots organizations and businessmen concerned about the environment and inspired by Nelson’s call for a national environmental teach-in. The Earth Week Committee of Philadelphia concluded that devoting only one day to the environment would not provide enough time and space to paint a comprehensive picture of the environmental issues confronting mankind. While all of their activities would build toward a climactic Earth Day celebration on April 22, there would also be an entire week of events in the week preceding.

Austan Librach, a regional planning graduate student, assumed the role of committee chairman and hired Edward Furia, who had just received his City Planning and Law Degrees from University of Pennsylvania, to be Project Director. The core group from Penn was joined in 1970 by students from other area colleges which, working together, organized scores of educational activities, scientific symposia and major mass media events in the Delaware Valley Region in and around Philadelphia. The Earth Week Committee of 33 members settled on a common objective—to raise public awareness of environmental problems and their potential solutions.

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. Convicted murderer Ira Einhorn claimed to act as the master of ceremonies, but this was not the case. The real event organizers dispute this account in a sworn statement saying “Ira Einhorn’s claims that he was a founder or organizer of Earth Day are false. He is a fraud. His lies do a real disservice to those of us who were and are deeply concerned about our planet’s environmental problems and who have worked hard to solve them.”. In that sworn statement, the organizers indicated that "Einhorn, given a small role on the stage at Earth Day, grabbed the microphone and refused to give up the podium for thirty minutes" During Einhorn’s murder trial, one of the Earth Day organizing committee members, psychiatrist Donald Nathanson, took the stand and under oath testified that the committee had barred Einhorn from their discussions, considering him a nuisance. Again, under oath and penalty of perjury, Dr. Nathanson said there was no master of ceremonies and Einhorn’s only role at the event had been as a liaison with poet and featured speaker Allen Ginsberg. But, Nathanson said, Einhorn didn’t merely introduce Ginsberg — he "commandeered the stage" speaking "incoherently" for half an hour and refusing repeated requests to leave and let the program continue.

Forty years later, the Earth Week Committee decided to make rare photos, video, and other previously unpublished information about the history of Earth Week 1970 available to the public at EarthWeek1970.org.

Many cities now extend the observance of Earth Day events to an entire week, usually starting on April 16 and ending on Earth Day, April 22. These events are designed to encourage environmentally aware behaviors, such as recycling, using energy efficiently, and reducing or reusing disposable items.