"Earth Day Turns 40, Having Spawned Environmental Movement"

"BOISE, Idaho -- One U.S. senator and a core of young organizers turned April 22, 1970, into the day the environmental movement was born.

On that day, 20 million Americans in 2,000 communities and 10,000 schools planted trees, cleaned up parks, buried cars in mock graves, marched, listened to speeches and protested how humans were messing up their world.

In New York, Marilyn Laurie, a young mother of two, convinced Mayor John Lindsay to close Fifth Avenue to cars and fill it with thousands of people to hear speakers such as actor Paul Newman. At the University of New Mexico, Arturo Sandoval led students and reporters from the three national television networks through the dirt roads and adobe houses of Albuquerque's poorest neighborhood to smell the choking odor of the city sewage plant."

Rocky Barker reports for McClatchy-Tribune News Service had the story April 18, 2010.

See Also:

"As Earth Day Turns 40, Environmental Movement Focuses on Practical Solutions" (Arizona Republic)

"Operation Green" (Living on Earth)

"Earth Day Turns 40: Success Stories From the Harrisburg Region" (Harrisburg Patriot-News)