Earth Day - The Beginning and Now Its 50th Anniversary
Earth Day is the single most popular secular event held around the world. The event began in the United States in 1970 and was exported around the world by dedicated Americans and naturalists from other countries who held similar views. One of the founders was a man named Morton Hilbert from the U.S. Public Health Service who organized an environmental conference for students to learn about the effects of environmental degradation on human health. For the next two years, Hilbert and students worked to plan the first Earth Day. One of those who became interested in Hilbert’s work was U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson who issued a proclamation for Earth Day after he toured an environmental disaster in California in 1969. While this Earth Day was focused on a United States event, a separate organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator for the 1970 Earth Day event, made it international in 1990 and organized similar Earth Day events in 141 nations.
A major impetus for Earth Day began in the aftermath of two American environmental disasters. The first and perhaps most important was a disaster that occurred on January 28, 1969 in the form of an oil spill. The other event that ignited American public interest in the environment was the burning of a river. On June 22, 1969, the Cuyahoga River burst into flames in downtown Cleveland when sparks from a passing train set fire to oil-soaked debris floating on the water’s surface. These two disasters a few months apart provided the spark that ignited an environmental revolution.
When TIME Magazine published dramatic photos of the burning river — so saturated with sewage and industrial waste that it “oozes rather than flows,” concern erupted nationwide. The flaming Cuyahoga became a figurehead for America’s mounting environmental issues and sparked wide-ranging reforms. Note that the picture below was taken in 1952 – evidence that the river has burned several times. In fact, the 1969 burning is a victory of sorts, it is the last time the river burned. Here is the rest of the story.
The Cuyahoga River Fire of 1952 near downtown Cleveland
The worst environmental disaster in the United States in 1969 was the oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California that occurred a few months before the burning of the river in Cleveland. From an oil industry perspective, Santa Barbara was about the worst place imaginable for an oil spill to occur, especially an event of the magnitude that occurred in a place loved my many vacationers. Of the many places that attract tourists, Santa Barbara is one of the best; a picturesque small town facing the south that is pinched between a lovely beachfront shoreline and the scenic mountains behind.
Santa Barbara Shoreline John Wiley User:Jw4nvc - Santa Barbara, California
The city and county authorities in Santa Barbara wanted to be certain that drilling for oil would do nothing to harm their tourist business, so they placed restrictions on the oil companies who wanted to drill for the readily accessible oil beneath the ocean’s surface.
Offshore drilling for oil was nothing new to Santa Barbara since it had begun there in 1897. A man named H.L. Williams is credited with drilling a well from a wooden pier in the Santa Barbara Channel in 1897, the first to be drilled entirely in the ocean. He used an island pier to support a land rig located next to an existing oil field. The well was successful for several years, but local authorities wanted to be sure that drilling in the region would not spoil their burgeoning tourist business. California's state authorities heeded their views and established regulations covering the property owned by the state, thus effectively ending offshore oil drilling. But the lure of profits from oil seemed irresistible. By the late 1960's, oil interests had petitioned the US government for drilling rights in federally controlled areas beyond the reach of locals. Off-shore drilling began once again, this time in waters controlled by the Federal Government.
A new boom in off-shore drilling began in the 1960’s after deep well drilling rigs were perfected for off-shore use. A number of rigs began operating around Santa Barbara as soon as the feds sold drilling rights. Union Oil was one of the winning bidders who designed and developed new rigs for new field. Shortly after an off-shore drilling rig was completed, drilling began on new Platform A in January of 1969. By the end of the month several wells had been completed and plans were in place for oil pumping as soon as the delivery systems were in place. But then Platform A had a sudden problem: the new well suddenly blew out; the crew had a gusher that was sending gas, oil, and mud upwards, coating the roustabouts on the platform with a filthy mix of salt water, drilling mud and oil. The drillers knew exactly what to do. They withdrew the drilling pipe and bit and replaced it with a 'blow-out preventer'--a stiff pipe inserted into the well casing with provisions for a cap on its end. The pressure was too much, they were unable to screw the cap in place to prevent the high-pressure oil and gas from its explosive flow. Sensing their failure, the drillers tried a measure of last resort; dropping the entire length of drill pipe, nearly a 1/2-mile-long into the hole they had pierced into the sea floor. As the last section of pipe was attached, the men worked quickly to crush the top of the pipe into a flat section that prevented further flow of oil and gas. It had taken them just 13 minutes to complete the emergency ‘last resort’ operation. They cheered their good fortune as the explosive flow of oil stopped. They had successfully capped the well and stopped the leak. Only it wasn't stopped, the leak simply moved somewhere else.
The first announcement of the potential disaster was made by Union Oil's regional superintendent about two and a half hours after the blowout. The superintendent told the Coast Guard that a well had blown out, but no oil was escaping. The superintendent then held a news conference to announce the spill and the successful capping operation. Everything is under control, he said. Shortly after the cap was installed an oil bubble and oil slick was noticed near the site of the well. Just residual oil from the leak, they seemed to think.
The seriousness of the spill became evident the next morning when a Coast Guard helicopter took Union Oil Superintendent Brown along with a State Fish and Game warden out over the platform, where they saw a central oil slick that extended several miles east, west, and south of the platform. They estimated a total of 75 square miles was covered by oil less than 24 hours after the blowout. An anonymous worker on the drill rig had telephoned the Santa Barbara News-Press regarding the blowout and the story was out. A Union Oil Vice President, John Fraser, assured reporters and local officials that the spill was small, with a diameter of 1,000 to 3,000 feet, and the leak would be quickly controlled. He said the estimated spill was about 5,000 US gallons. (Later estimates put the spill rate in the first days at about 210,000 US gallons per day).
In the next several hours, sharp-eyed observers noticed more oil slicks in the waters surrounding the nearby islands. Finally it dawned on the oil company executives, that the high pressure of the oil and gas beneath had broken through the weak, sandy soil at the ocean bottom and oil was spewing from several ruptures in the earth, many distant from the original drill hole. Evidence of the leaking oil began to be understood as oil slicks began appearing on beaches all around the area. Initially it seemed that no one knew how to control the flow and fix the leak that continued for the next several days. Over the ten-day period of the leak, 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil spewed from the failed well into the clear coastal waters at a leak rate in excess of 100,000 gallons per hour. It was the largest oil spill in United States waters by that time, and now ranks third after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon leak in the Gulf of Mexico and 1989 Exxon Valdez spill off the coast of Alaska. It remains the largest oil spill to have occurred in the waters off California as result of Union Oil's leak at platform A on the Santa Barbara coast.
Beach clean-up operations at Santa Barbara using straw to absorb oil
The leak galvanized both local and national action to remedy the damage done. Techniques for clean-up of the spilled oil was rudimentary; workers used whatever they had at hand in trying to soak up the oil that was fouling the precious beaches.
The leak became both local and national news. Activists around the country pointed to the leak as an example of failed policies of the US government concerning protection of natural resources. In February of 1969, the President of Union Oil arrived in southern California to see for himself what had happened. He was heckled at the airport and an instant demonstration against big oil erupted. The Santa Barbara spill alarmed the country and awakened those who felt action was needed.
President Nixon was stirred to action. He visited Santa Barbara in March and walked the beach to witness the environmental damage caused by the oil leak and get his picture taken while he talked to local people worried about the problem. His presence furthered the energy of those activists who wanted change. Some months later the Cuyahoga River caught fire in Cleveland and added fuel to the nation’s mood for environmental activism. The two local events quickly fused a national movement for natural resource activism. Four months after his Santa Barbara visit, Nixon established an environmental council in his Cabinet, and in 1970, he established the Environmental Protection Agency and gave the new organization the authority to propose numerous pieces of environmental legislation. Within the next several years, legislation was implemented that now forms the legal and regulatory framework for the modern environmental movement in the U. S.
The first Earth Day was celebrated that same year.
