U.S. Environmental Movement Preceded Earth Day by More Than a Century

The environmental movement in the United States began long before 1970 and the first Earth Day. Henry David Thoreau wrote Walden in 1854 and The Maine Woods a decade later. Thoreau's observations and philosophies not only gave birth to the U.S. environmental movement but also influenced such disparate events as the emergence of the national park system and the civil rights movement.

But even before Thoreau's books, environmental consciousness was dawning. In 1852, a protest erupted after a circus entrepreneur chopped down a 2,520 year old sequioa nicknamed Mother of the Forest to use in a sideshow. One popular Boston magazine reportedly described the chopping down of the tree as "a perfect desecration," and noted that Europeans cherish their natural wonders and protect them by law. The editors expressed hope that Niagara Falls and Mammoth Cave wouldn't likewise be destroyed by entrepreneurs.

By 1892, the Sierra Club formed. Sierra's earliest accomplishment was holding back those who would have circumscribed Yosemite National Park's boundaries. Sierra was one conservation effort that made an impact, but there were others that sprung up in the coming decades. The National Coast Anti-Pollution League formed in 1922 to battle coastal oil pollution. The tonnage of tankers carrying oil between 1914 and 1922 had increased 850 percent while cargo balancing and spill recovery were still in their infancy. The result, according to historian Joseph A. Pratt, was the worst oil pollution in American history. Congressman T. Frank Appleby, noting that "careless oil dumping has become a serious menace," introduced legislation to limit oil dumping. That effort eventually spawned the 1924 Oil Pollution Act.

Environmental stewardship got another boost when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps as part of the New Deal. The CCC, nicknamed Roosevelt's "Tree Army," planted 3 billion trees between 1933 and 1942. This massive tree planting effort was designed to reverse dangerous erosion.

Even the global warming movement had its roots in environmental efforts dating back to 1957. That was the year a Scripps Institution of Oceanography chemist confirmed a build-up of carbon dioxide in earth's atmosphere.

In 1962, Rachel Carson penned Silent Spring. In Silent Spring,Carson took on chemical corporations' assertions of pesticide safety. She documented the harms inherent in chemical pesticide use for humans and wildlife. This influential book is responsible for challenging the logic of pesticide use and generating interest in natural pest control.

Events in 1969, including the Santa Barbara oil well blowout and a Cuyahoga River fire moblilized environmentalists, creating a groundswell of support for legislation to protect waterways. The Clean Water Act was ultimately passed in 1972, two years after the first Earth Day.

These are among the key U.S. environmental efforts that preceded the first Earth Day in 1970.