50 Years After The First Earth Day, We Are İn The Midst Of A Pandemic. And We Need Science More Than Ever.

On April 22, 1970, 20 million people gathered in an event that became known as Earth Day to spread public awareness of the environment.

The decade that followed saw some of America’s most popular and powerful environmental legislation, according to the Earth Day Network, including updates to the Clear Air Act and creation of the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Now 50 years later  with global warming becoming an increasing menace  the need for science is again in the spotlight because of a global pandemic.

“The pandemic provides unequivocal evidence of the dire consequences of government ignoring science," marine conservation biologist and environmental activist Rick Steiner said.

Senator Tom Udall, D-New Mexico, said the public health crisis "offers us a number of important lessons that we must heed as we observe Earth Day. First: the destruction of nature and ecosystems is not just a threat to our planet, but it is a threat to our public health.

"Scientists tell us that as we destroy nature, habitats and the natural barriers between humans and wildlife – we will only see more and more zoonotic diseases like the COVID-19 pandemic," Udall said.

He also said that we cannot afford to ignore how human-caused climate change and habitat destruction represent a chilling promise: that this is only the first of a series of devastating crises that threaten to profoundly alter and disrupt life as we know it. 

Indeed, despite the "existential threat of climate change," today the U.S. and other countries are rolling back environmental protections, failing to live up to the Paris Climate Agreement and dragging their feet on climate action, the Earth Day Network said.

John Oppermann, the executive director of the Earth Day Initiative, said “a disregard for science and basic facts are killing us. It is fueling epidemics and it is driving climate solutions further and further from reality." 

And in a statement, the World Resources Institute warned that as the United States reels from the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn, the last thing the country needs is the continued rollback of measures that grow the economy, save consumers money and protect Americans' health, all while ignoring the tremendous opportunity offered by renewable energy and other low carbon investments. 

"Peoples lives are being changed and we're seeing the need for science in a very immediate way," George Meyer, who was a 22 year old law student during the first Earth Day, said recently. "If we as a nation continue to value science to address these larger, longer term problems like climate change, I think we could see another time of significant progress."

Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe added that the pandemic has taught us that what really matters is the same for all of us: It’s the health and safety of our families and our loved ones, our communities and our world. 

“That’s what the coronavirus pandemic threatens, and that’s exactly what climate change does, too," she said. "And that’s why we only have to be one thing to care about climate change: a human living on Planet Earth.”