The first Earth Day mobilizes millions

FILE - In this April 22, 1970 file photo, a Pace College student in a gas mask "smells" a magnolia blossom in City Hall Park on Earth Day in New York. (AP Photo)
A crowd of people gather near a large poster that shows a speech bubble from planet Earth that reads 'Help!!', on the occasion of the first Earth Day conservation awareness celebration, New York, New York, April 22, 1970. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Children use push brooms to sweep a city park during Earth Day, New York City, 1970s. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
A youngster wears a "Let Me Grow Up" sign on back on a hilltop in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park Wednesday, April 23, 1970. The crowd, made up mostly of young people, was estimated at more than 20,000 persons. (AP Photo)
Kenneth Opat is squirted with oil pistols by Dorothy Goldsmith, left, and Rita Webb, at Tulane University in New Orleans as students tagged Louisiana's oil industry with the "polluter of the month" award, April 22, 1970. The demonstration was part of the first observance of Earth Day. (AP Photo)
A woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty poses on a float full of trash during Earth Day observances in Florida in 1970. (AP Photo)
A group of 'hippie' men and children sit in a park with tie-dyed tapestries on Earth Day, April 22, 1970. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
A group of Clark College students attempt to dramatize air pollution by taking walks around Vancouver wearing gas masks as an Earth Week project, April 21, 1970. "We're trying to show the effects of pollution, but most ignore us," said one of them. (AP Photo)
In this April 22, 1970 file photo "Earth Day" demonstrators trying to dramatize environmental pollution conclude their rally at the Interior Department in Washington, leaving spilled oil in their wake. The oil was used to protest pollution caused by offshore oil drilling. (AP Photo)
Crowds gather by a George Washington statue in Union Square for Earth Day celebrations, New York City, April 22, 1970. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
In this April 22, 1970, file photo, demonstrators stand around wooden boxes during an Earth Day mock funeral at Logan International Airport in Boston. The group held a rally protesting the airport's air pollution, expansion and the coming of super sonic jets. Some 15 demonstrators were arrested by state police who charged them with blocking foot passages in the lobby of the airport. (AP Photo).
A rock band attracts the crowd's attention at Milwaukee's Performing Arts Center where area youths met to protest pollution in general and in the Milwaukee River, April 23, 1970. They paddled around on the dirty water for a while and then spent the remainder of the evening listening to the music. (AP Photo).
A small section of the estimated 20,000 person crowd which attended Philadelphia's Earth Day observance sits shoulder to shoulder, April 23, 1970. (AP Photo/Bill Ingraham)
'Earth Day' in New York, part of the largest organised event in American history to date. Over 20 million people participated in events concerning the environment. On this New York street they are recycling glass and cans. The banner reads, 'Big Apple Recycler'. (Photo by Peter Keegan/Getty Images)
A girl wears a face mask to highlight the problems of air pollution during the Earth Day celebrations in New York. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

By Mark DuFrene | mdufrene@bayareanewsgroup.com

PUBLISHED: April 22, 2020 at 8:00 a.m. | UPDATED: April 22, 2020 at 10:19 a.m.

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On April 22, 1970, 20 million people took to the streets in rallies across the country to call attention to the impact of industrial development on the planet on what became known as Earth Day.

Inspired by the student anti-war movement of the late 1960’s, activists mobilized to call attention to air and water pollution, oil spills, the loss of wildlife and the increasing use of pesticides that scientists were warning would cause irreparable damage to the earth.

Since that first Earth Day, Congress has passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.