Marches erupted throughout the U.S. in 1970. Demonstrators could be seen holding signs and chanting. These protests all led up to the formation of Earth Day on April 22, 1970.

“Earth Day, a question of survival,” said CBS’s Walter Cronkite as he covered the news of the new day.

According to the Environmental Protection Agencies website, the post-World War II economy was booming, leading to more technological advancement. Technology was intended to make life easier and seen as an incredible marvel. The environmental repercussions, however, were not yet taken into account. It took sea birds greased in oil off the coast of Santa Barbara and the Cuyahoga River catching fire before many across the U.S. began to wake up to climate issues.

It took some work before Cronkite was talking about Earth Day on the evening news. Multiple teach-ins across the country finally seemed to make a difference.

The Vietnam War teach-ins at universities across the states eventually acted as inspiration for how Earth Day would eventually catch on. Teach-ins began when college professors would extend their class hours, allowing students to come in, listen, and debate until the early hours of the morning.

Senator Gaylord Nelson was a prime figure in the march toward Earth Day. He grew up in Wisconsin and spent a lot of time outdoors. After seeing the Santa Barbara disaster first-hand and reading about teach-ins on his plane ride back home, he became set on developing some sort of plan by spring 1970.

He first labeled it Environmental Teach-in Inc. As a 53-year-old senator, he was a pillar of the establishment. In an effort to reach across younger generations, he hired 20-year-old graduate student Dennis Hayes to organize the teach-in and invite young radicals.

Without approval from the senator, Hayes was the one who coined the phrase Earth Day. This was unbeknownst to Nelson until an ad that Hayes paid for appeared in the New York Times on Jan. 18, 1970. In large letters, it read: Earth Day, April 22.

Eventually, the movement began to receive much media coverage. Up to fifteen thousand colleges began organizing along with a number of other grade schools.

Both left and right-winged states were involved in the movement and it was not yet politicized. Even a state as red as Alabama, which was the second most polluted state at the time, had a “right to live week” which discussed how to better care for the Earth.

Eventually, Nixon’s Whitehouse issued a statement declaring the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.

“Today’s event should be a beginning of a new and sustained public commitment to the environment,” said Cronkite on the CBS Earth Day special

On top of that, as a result of the teach-ins and marches, many other laws came in the wake of it all. The EPA was created December 1970 eight months after Earth Day along with the Clean air act. The clean water act came in in 1972.

Cronkite ended his CBS special with the statement “And those who marched today, and those who slept, and those who scorned are in this thing together.”

Fast-forward 52 years and environmental concerns are much more divided and politicized.

There are many programs on San Juan Island that allows individuals to get involved to protect the island’s unique ecosystem.

The Madrona Institute is one, including their Islands Climate Resilience program. It began in 2015 with volunteers in order to prepare for climate-related impacts.

The Environmental Stewardship Program also allows for islanders to get involved locally. They have tree-planting events, along with an environmental handbook.

Ronald Zee of the Madrona Institute stated that adopting a stewardship ethic means taking responsibility for how we live our lives in balance with nature and if we take care of nature, nature will take care of us.

“It is most important to recognize that we, as human species, are part of the environment, part of nature… the land, waters, plants and animals, and air around us,” Zee said. “We must strive to be a species in balance with the environment, and that is what stewardship is about, caring about our relationship to the natural world as well as understanding our interconnection with everything around us – the web of life.”