Great strides made since first Earth Day

First-graders Brad and Colin Martin spent Thursday afternoon scampering around Helm Woods Forest Preserve in Carpentersville, picking up trash and proudly handing it to their mother.

The twins from Lake Barrington were out with a group from Countryside Elementary and Sunny Hill Elementary schools learning about the “living museum” and helping to keep it clean in honor of Earth Day, which is today.

No one had to explain to the twin boys what to do. They hardly could contain their urge to clean up all litter in sight.

“I think it’s a good idea because it can help keep the Earth clean and not have garbage so animals don’t try to eat it and die,” Brad Martin said.

Children like the Martin boys never will know a time when littering is OK. They won’t see their mother toss an empty pop can on the ground or watch their dad dump used motor oil into the local creek. For the Martins and millions of other American children, taking care of the Earth is normal, and April 22 always has been Earth Day.

More than ‘just a fad’

The first Earth Day was in 1970, when Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson, looking to put environmental issues on the national agenda, called upon Americans to rally April 22 and show Washington, D.C., that the Earth and what happened to it was important.

“When Earth Day first started, there were those that looked at concern for the environment as ‘just a fad,’ but as each year goes by I feel more and more people recognize and accept their responsibility for care of the Earth,” said Alice Howenstine of McHenry.

Howenstine was a young woman in the days before Earth Day and agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency existed. She worked to found the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County in the late 1960s, and she and her husband, Bill, have dedicated their lives to conservation efforts.

Today, with many of the reforms and regulations that people such as Nelson and the Howenstines fought for during the 1970s and 1980s in place, Earth Day and the “green movement” have become mainstream.

Once primarily describing tree-hugging hippies, the green movement now encompasses suburban families who use CFL light bulbs and reusable cloth shopping bags while teaching their children to recycle.

Local municipalities also have incorporated a green mentality into daily operations.

In Algonquin for example, the village voluntarily has developed its own Environmental Stewardship Mission Statement and has policies aimed at conserving resources – both natural and financial.

“There needs to be a symmetrical relationship between the tree-huggers and the dollar tree-huggers,” said Vincent Olsen, Algonquin internal services superintendent.

Olson said that in Algonquin, the greatest “green movement” changes that affected residents actually had come from employees and not federal regulation.

Under the villages’ Green Products Purchasing policy for example, it has replaced most existing cleaners that contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These compounds can combine with nitrogen oxides in the air to form ozone, and some are carcinogenic.

“We did so, and the outcome actually reduced costs as we purchased products in bulk with reusable bottles,” Olsen said. Thanks to a voluntary Engine Oil Analysis program, the village also has found savings and uses 1,800 gallons less annually.

The business of being green

Local businesses also strive to strike a balance between tree-friendly and budget-friendly operations. This can be difficult sometimes, however, because corporations often must compete with businesses in other countries where managers do not have to comply with the same type of environmental regulations.

“Fortunately for most companies, these regulations are not necessary as they already act appropriately with regards to the care of the environment,” said John P. McGillivray, manager of safety and environmental affairs with Scot Forge Co. in Spring Grove.

It is when regulations move beyond the threshold of common sense guidelines that disagreement can arise and businesses can be stressed.

Some regulations, McGillivray said, “unnecessarily add even greater imbalance to our ability to compete and therefore survive to provide good-paying jobs in our communities.”

Although Scot Forge is located in several small communities, it competes in a global market.

“We all understand and appreciate that an uneven playing field will exist to some degree because the United States has a high standard for a clean and safe environment,” McGillivray said. “As a result, we are challenged to innovate in other ways to make up for the uneven ground we are competing on.”

For example, even small federal requirements add up. Scot Forge’s Spring Grove facility spends about $450 a week conducting tests on its water discharge to ensure it meets standards.

Most of the forge’s moves to reduce pollution and its carbon footprint have been self- motivated, however.

Specifically, in its Spring Grove and Clinton, Wis., facilities, the company has invested more than $5 million into redesigning the furnaces it uses. This will reduce the heat-up time of the steel it forges and reduce the natural gas used by more than 40 percent, McGillivray said.

Another project under way in Spring Grove is an effort to reduce water consumption by 150,000 to 200,000 gallons a month.

“In addition to saving a natural resource, we lower our utility and treatment costs and become more competitive. It’s a win-win,” McGillivray said.

Power of regulations

Many companies, especially in today’s economy, McGillivray notes, do not have the resources to invest in the types of upgrades that Scot Forge enjoys. As a result, they lose ground each day to foreign competition, higher costs, and stricter regulations.

The situation also can cause manufacturers to move operations outside of the U.S. to remain competitive.

That observation is one U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, R-McHenry, has made a talking point at recent town hall style meetings with McHenry County constituents. In addition, in his short time in office, he already has made it a point to vote for measures that would scale back EPA regulations.

“Everybody is invested in the clean environment, but the problem is the heavy hand of government has swung so far in the last few years ... now the regulations that agencies like the EPA impose on businesses hinder job growth and are hurting businesses,” Walsh said.

While corporations, municipalities and politicians took time this week to consider how to navigate the varied effects of the Earth Day and the green movement, children like the Martin boys today simply will recycle, play outside and enjoy the Earth.

ORIGINS OF EARTH DAY OUTBOX

Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day in 1970. Looking for a way to force the issue of environmental protection onto the national agenda, he turned to the people of the U.S. He proposed that April 22, 1970, be a day for all Americans to organize and speak out about environmental degradation and its negative effects on the citizens of the world.

Without the help of social media, cell phones or the Internet, Earth Day found massive support. About 20 million Americans demonstrated that spring in cities across the country in observance of Earth Day.

The large showing of support forced politicians to acknowledge public concern for the environment and galvanized Congress into creating important U.S. environmental legislation.

In that fall’s midterm election, voters booted out several officials with poor environmental records, and Congress went on to make the 1970s the “Environmental Decade” by establishing the bulk of today’s environmental regulatory authority through the passage of 28 pieces of legislation, including the Endangered Species Act, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, and amendments strengthening the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Air and Water Acts.

In December that year, Congress authorized the creation of a new federal agency to tackle environmental issues, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In the years that followed, Earth Day grew. The 20th anniversary was observed by 1.8 million people gathered on Central Park’s Great Lawn. It also was observed by small groups of people gathered in classrooms and communities everywhere in their own way.

In 1990, a crowd of 800,000 gathered on the National Mall to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Earth Day.

Nelson told the crowd that day: “I don’t want to have to come limping back here 20 years from now on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day … and have the embarrassing responsibility of telling your sons and daughters that you didn’t do your duty – that you didn’t become the conservation generation that we hoped for.”

Compiled by Katie Anderson
from materials at EPA.gov.