Earth Day Turns 50!

On the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, CLA recognizes the people who create meaningful change. The founders of Earth Day are among these change-makers.

In 1970, two politicians from opposing political parties, together with a community organizer, launched the first Earth Day and ignited a global movement to save our planet.

CLA Senior Attorney, Molly Brown (5th from the L), attends Hands Across the Hudson during Earth Day 1988

The first Earth Day brought together 20 million Americans across the country to protest the dangerous environmental and health impacts of industrial development. Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) and Congressman Pete McCloskey (R-CA) put aside their political differences to enlist support from ALL Americans – farmers, business leaders, and environmentalists. Their hard work, together with Denis Hayes, resulted in the first Earth Day, the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and later the passage of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.  Click HERE for more information on the history of Earth Day.

CLA is proud to work with the many  AMAZING change-makers here in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Today, we salute YOU, too!

Together, we use the power of our nation’s environmental laws — many of which were created in the 1970’s — to protect your community’s health and environment. Now, more than ever, we must protect the environmental successes achieved over the last 50 years, while we continue to ensure that new threats, like climate change, don’t send us backwards. We are all in this together.

 Happy Earth Day from the CLA Family!