The first Earth Day was largely aimed at environmental problems that had become evident mostly during the 1960s in the U.S.  Widespread biological extinction was barely starting to be discussed and little attention was being paid to global warming.  The global population then of 3.6 billion people was consuming about 70% of the world’s potential sustainable productivity; today a population of 7.8 billion is consuming 175% of the total, far beyond the limits of sustainability.  Chief problems that have come into focus are: (1) it’s all global; (2) global warming is a threat to civilization and we’re not responding adequately; (3) half of the world’s biodiversity may be gone by the end of the century, more than a quarter by the centennial of Earth Day in 2071; (4) individual and national selfishness is preventing effective action while we dwell on the present and what we can get now.

Presented by
Peter H. Raven, President Emeritus, Missouri Botanical Garden