The article reflects on the inaugural Earth Day celebrated on April 22, 1970, emphasizing the significant environmental issues that inspired this movement, including oil spills and pollution. It highlights that our planet has dramatically changed, particularly in the Arctic with record-low sea ice coverage and soaring carbon dioxide levels. The article draws a stark contrast to the optimism of Earth Day's origins, illustrating that the challenges facing the planet today are more severe than anticipated, reiterating the need for renewed awareness and activism in the face of environmental decline.
The inaugural Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, had many triggers: an oil spill in Santa Barbara, a river that kept catching fire in Cleveland.
Earth doesn't look like it did in that image anymore. After millennia of stability, huge change is now afoot.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air is more than fifty per cent higher now than it was before the Industrial Revolution.
Last year saw the single largest increase ever measured, amid other signs of our forests' diminishing ability to sequester carbon.
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