Today is the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day, and OU students and professors share diverse knowledge about today’s celebrated environmentalism.
“Earth Day is about raising awareness about the Earth and the environment,” said Wade Hensley, a member of the Housing Center Student Association’s recycling committee. “It’s sad that we have to have an Earth Day to raise awareness, but if enough effort is put into raising awareness it can have a beneficial and a substantial impact.”
Hensley, University College freshman, said OU students should respond to Earth Day by taking advantage of campus’ recycling capabilities. He said there is no excuse to not recycle.
Chelsea Enochs, mechanical engineering junior, said she had never heard of Earth Day. She said in her experience, most people don’t know about Earth Day.
“When people don’t know about Earth Day, most people don’t care, so the benefits would be very little if at all,” Enochs said.
Donald Pisani, history professor, has taught the course “American Environmental History” at OU for 20 years.
“Earth Day represented simply the recognition that you have to broaden the [environmental] movement to the American public and make it a mainstream issue,” Pisani said.
Pisani said Sen. Gaylord Nelson, D-Wis., who was a strong environmentalist, instituted the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, because he thought there needed to be a mass environmental movement. The Environmental Protection Agency was founded in the same year.
“I never thought Earth Day was important because it never changed anything [significant politically],” Pisani said.
He said the most notable environmental advances in the last 40 years include water and air pollution regulations and expansion of national parks. However, these changes did not directly result from Earth Day celebrations.
“Earth Day was a media event,” Pisani said.
He said there were protests against pollution, but that it was not originally a coordinated national program to protect the environment. He said the Earth Day protests coincided with Vietnam, civil rights and feminist protests.
Pisani said many conservative students, especially in the Midwest, do not want to be considered environmentalists.
“The way I look at it is not to preach to people, but simply suggest alternatives that may be cheaper, healthier and give people the sense that they are contributing to the environment improvement without becoming what they tend to think are radicals,” Pisani said.
Pisani said OU students should try to make their personal lives environmentally-friendly instead of focusing on changing the whole world.
“The most important things people can do is not change the world, but change personal conduct,” Pisani said. “If you don’t want to try anything dramatic in terms of changing the environment, then change the environment around yourself.”
He said examples of personal changes include walking or taking a bike instead of driving a car and eating local foods with reduced meat.
“My philosophy is for people to look at what they can do individually and comfortably, not something someone can shame them into doing to protect the planet,” Pisani said.
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mustafa 2 years, 1 month ago
"...many conservative students, especially in the Midwest, do not want to be considered environmentalists."
That is because they can see the Emperor has no clothes. IOW not everyone falls for the enviromental babble machine.