Earth Day Originated At Penn, No Joke
Given the trash we usually see littered on College Green, we’d be hard-pressed to believe many students observe Earth Day (well, aside from a couple). Since today, 4/22 is that day we celebrate the planet, here’s a bit of history that may shock you (it shocked me).
Did you know that Earth Week, and then eventually the international movement known as Earth Day, was started by a group of a Penn students? It’s true.
A committee of students and local folks organized Earth Week on Penn’s campus from April 16-22 in 1970. Eventually, the Penn group expanded to other nearby colleges as well as community organizations. The idea caught on, started to spread nationally, and here we are today.
So throw away your trash, kidz.
Tags: Campus, april 22, earth day, penn history
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By Alumg on April 22, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Piping up on behalf of Julian Koenig, because I sympathize with grumpy old men, check out the first part of this TAL episode:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/383/Origin-Story
In 1969 Koenig decided the date for Earthday should be April 22, his birthday, because “Earth Day” rhymes with “Birthday.”
Earth Day didn’t originate here, but Philadelphia’s Earth Week was a result of it.
@Carrie, yeah—jesus christ, have you ever heard of Wikipedia and Google?