Members of Congress Honor the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day

Fifty years ago, the late Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and his team established the first Earth Day. Then representative Pete McCloskey, a Republican from California, served as the event’s co-chair. As recognized in Rep. Donald McEachin’s (D-Va.) 2020 House Resolution (H.RES.932), Sen. Nelson and Rep. McCloskey “called on the people of the United States to hold elected officials accountable for failing to adequately protect the health of people and the natural environment.” Co-sponsored by 120 representatives, the 2020 resolution acknowledges the progress federal elected officials have made as well as the challenges remaining, including “climate change, pollution, sea-level rise, and loss of forests, wetlands, and other wildlife habitats.” According to the resolution’s co-sponsors, these challenges “reinforce the need for adequate protections for the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we inhabit, and the animals we live alongside.”

Many legislators took a few moments on April 22, 2020, to recognize Earth Day. Earth Day 2020, as Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) put it, “will be one we will remember for a long time because we are in the middle of the pandemic and we are in the middle of our economy being more or less closed. And this is really tough on everyone. But it is important in the midst of this that we also remember that the Earth itself is in a kind of pandemic. The kind of pandemic that will change the future of the planet unless we take steps to alter it—to stop the rush of climate change.” In his video address, Sen. King went on to discuss the pressing need for bipartisan solutions to address the climate crisis.

Photo from Rep. Bonamici

Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), and Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), all participated in virtual events on Earth Day to discuss climate and environmental policy in light of the pandemic. Reps. Castor and Bonamici spoke at the Blue Green Alliance’s event, Building a Green Road to Recovery. Rep. Castor, Chair of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, emphasized that the Select Committee’s year of work has produced substantial recommendations on the intersection of climate and public health, which centers on protections for the most vulnerable communities. Rep. Bonamici suggested, “the center of a recovery package must focus on creating and restoring good-paying jobs, and, with this, we have the opportunity to incorporate climate-resilient infrastructure in that process.” 

Rep. Tonko and Rep. Blunt Rochester celebrated Earth Day with a zoom meeting on climate and environmental policy with guest Gina McCarthy, the President of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Action Fund and a former EPA Administrator. Like Rep. Bonamici, Rep. Tonko, Chair of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change, also underscored the importance of clean energy jobs, “The clean energy industry is already employing millions of Americans and is one of the fastest-growing employment sectors today. Committing to a clean energy economy would foster economic growth and save our families money.”

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) gave a video address from his home with an Earth Day call to action for citizens, communities, and fellow Members of Congress: “We need to do everything we can to unleash the solar, the wind, the all-electric vehicle revolutions, that we invest in the smartest new agricultural policies, that we make sure we build in the most energy-efficient new technologies, to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are going up into the atmosphere.”

While these environmental champions work on these issues every day, Earth Day provided a moment for all of Congress to assess progress and challenges. The House Resolution encourages all us to “mark Earth Day by working to address environmental challenges large and small, from climate change to litter; to educate their friends, neighbors, and elected representatives about the need for year-round action; and to otherwise honor the stewardship ethic for which Senator Gaylord Nelson stood.”