The clearest Earth Day in 50 years: how far can you see?

Today is the 50h anniversary of Earth Day. Conceived by Wisconsin U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson and brought to life by a 25 years old Denis Hayes, Earth Day burst forth on April 22, 1970, during the then never-ending Vietnam War and two weeks before students were shot dead at Jackson State and Kent State universities as campuses erupted over the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.

Our country and our planet has known massive strife. In 1970 it was also a very dirty, polluted, world.

But Earth Day and follow up actions by millions of Americans of all ages had an immediate impact. By the end of 1970, the National Environmental Protection Act and stringent amendments to the Clean Air were passed and OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Agency, and the U.S. EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, were created. All were signed into law or created under the auspices of just about our best presidential defender of the environment, with the possible exception of Barak Obama, Richard Nixon.

Today there were to be massive rallies, demonstrations and protests on city streets and in town squares around the world. All are cancelled, shut down by the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. All of a sudden, this is the greatest threat to our health and economic well being in our lifetimes. Never in modern world history have economies ground to a halt as they did at winter’s end.

And so, today, Earth Day 50, the skies around the world are clearer than they have been in generations. The near total disruption of the international industrial economy has greatly lowered air emissions.

Google “air pollution coronavirus.” Top hits Monday:

“Air pollution in some [European] cities is less than half what it was a year ago, according to new data from the satellite that has been documenting the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on air pollution across the world. Paris has seen nitrogen dioxide drop by 54 percent, while Madrid, Milan and Rome saw a drop of nearly 50%.”

“NASA satellite sees air pollution drop over northeastern US.”

“Air pollution has dropped by 30% in the Northeast, NASA says. Are coronavirus stay-at-home orders responsible?”

Google will also reveal that the quote, in all caps, “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US” is from Pogo, created by cartoonist Walt Kelly for “the poster Kelly designed to help promote environmental awareness and publicize the first annual observance of Earth Day, held on April 22, 1970.”

You can’t make this stuff up. And, timing is everything.

First Earth Day coordinator Denis Hayes, now 75, lives in Seattle. He is still at it. His analysis, post-flattened curve: “the real challenge lies in the next six months. The 2020 U.S. election will be the most important of your lifetime. It can be an inflection point for the world.

“The 2020 election will determine whether the great American experiment – universal suffrage, separation of powers, Bill of Rights, rule of law – will be resuscitated from the dark impact of the worst president in the nation’s history.”

There isn’t a nice way to get around it. President Trump’s record on the environment these past three years has been attacks on one regulation after another. He makes no bones about his advocacy for coal and oil corporations. He encouraged negotiations between two of the biggest oil producers on the planet, Russia and Saudi Arabia, to boost the price of oil, intertwining bad environmental policy with bad foreign policy. Supporting Russia and Saudi Arabia?

The way to lower carbon dioxide levels is to raise voter turnout. Writes Hayes:

“The 2020 election will determine whether America will come again to cherish sound science, respect expertise, revere innovators and assume its leadership role in protecting the planet from climate devastation. Essentially, all climate scientists agree that we are approaching irreversible tipping points that threaten to permanently impoverish not just the human prospect but the entire web of life.

“On November 3, don’t vote for your pocketbook, or your political tribe, or your cultural biases.

“This November 3, vote for the Earth.”

May these clear skies help us to see at least six months distance.