Earth Day at 55 â A Climate Reckoning
Earth Day has evolved from protest to policyâbut the worldâs environmental crisis has only intensified.
In 1970, twenty million Americans took to parks, streets, and campuses for the first Earth Dayâa protest-turned-movement that demanded environmental accountability from the powers that be. At the time, rivers caught fire, smog swallowed skylines, and regulations were a whispered idea rather than law. That first wave of public pressure helped birth the EPA, the Clean Air Act, and a slew of other protections that shaped modern environmental policy. It was noisy, idealistic, and effective. But 55 years later, the question looms: What did we really fix?
Today, Earth Day is a global brand. Itâs livestreamed, hashtagged, and corporate-sponsored. Yet beneath the âcelebrationâ lies a stark truth: the planet is in worse shape than ever. The Arctic is melting. Wildfires rage across continents. Climate migration is no longer theoreticalâitâs measurable. An
