Two keystone catastrophes happened in 1969. On the morning of January 28, 1969,  three million gallons of oil was blown into the ocean in Santa Barbara, California, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The oil spill killed thousands of seabirds, and seals and dolphins were poisoned. And then on June 22, 1969, an oil slick caused a fire on Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River just southeast of downtown Cleveland, Ohio. These events galvanized a time when people came together for change.
 
Gaylord Nelson, Senator from Wisconsin, announced the Earth Day concept at a conference in Seattle in the fall of 1969 and invited the entire nation to get involved. The first Earth Day was on April 22, 1970 and 20 million people participated in activities across the United States. Senator Nelson had an office staffed with college students, veterans of protest campaigns and civil rights movements of the 1960s. This first Earth Day ignited much enthusiasm and ultimately led to the establishment of the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

In February 1971 Earth Day was recognized by the United Nations on the vernal equinox, the first day of spring. Please do read the rich history of this day as today nearly 200 countries worldwide celebrate Earth Day on either April 22 or on the vernal equinox. 
 
What are the recent changes to Earth Day?
Changes began to ramp up in April 2016 as the Paris Agreement agreed to combat climate change and created initiatives for a low-carbon future to keep global temperature rise this century under 2 degrees Celsius. In August 2018, Greta Thunberg began the School Strike for Climate - engaging young people who will live with the effects in their lifetime. In September 2019 a Global Climate Strike was the largest ever with more than 4 million people involved in an international movement. And thus began the Sunrise Movement and the Green New Deal.
 
For Earth Day 2021, President Joe Biden hosted a “Summit on Climate” addressing climate change with a $2 trillion infrastructure overhaul, which has not yet happened, and may not. The plan is to combat climate change and move the United States to green energy which would improve infrastructure and provide jobs. 
 
Last month the National March Report 2022 came out with details and graphs of where we are right now. It isn’t pretty. We need to come together again as we did on Earth Day in 1970. We need a  world-wide movement to make change happen now.

It is called the “tree-to-toilet” pipeline – which takes boreal old growth forests in Canada and turns them into toilet paper – a product used once and then thrown down the toilet. Thankfully the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) has been researching about paper products and giving a grade (A, B, D, F) for whether they use recycled fibers or produce a paper product that is produced ethically. 
 
The destruction of these forests for toilet paper has had a huge impact on wildlife and Indigenous peoples. Ultimately it adds to the devastation of a delicately balanced ecosystem, which adds to climate change on our Mother Earth. This article in the journal The Narwhal explains the devastation with maps and photos of what is happening with British Columbia ancient growth forests.
 
The two largest companies producing toilet paper are Proctor and Gamble, Kimberly-Clark. Some companies are heeding the call of stockholders, consumers and scientists to stop the role they play in this forest destruction by using recycled materials. But P&G has not changed their practices and continues to use pulp from old growth boreal forests. Charmin toilet paper is P&G’s major seller and is graded “F.” Kimberly-Clark produces Scott 1000 which is graded “F,” but with pressure from customers and others, began to make Scott Essential Standard Roll tissue that is made from 100% recycled content and has the grade of “A.” This was the first victory for the two big companies