"Fifty-six years after the first one rallied 20 million people across America, “we need to do things that make us feel more powerful.”"
"Earth Day was born in 1970 during a moment of human solidarity in troubled times. Violent Vietnam war protests, burning Black communities and girdles and bras publicly trashed by feminists spoke of great social divides.
And then, like the sweetest chord in a symphony, Christmas Eve 1968 brought photos of Earth taken by the first humans to circle the Moon. Humanity gasped as Apollo 8 showed that all of us were on a single gorgeous blue marble, shimmering in the black vastness of space.
Within 16 months the first Earth Day had brought 20 million Americans together in peaceful demonstrations—a record that stands today. We rallied to care for our common home, and for that day, at least, each other. On this Earth Day, April 22, much seems to divide us, but we also have brand-new pictures of our shared planet, thanks to Artemis II."
