On April 22, the US commemorates the 50th anniversary of a milestone of environmentalism: the first Earth Day. Earth Day has an integral Penn connection, as the late Penn professor emeritus Ian McHarg was one of the founders of this event, which raised national awareness of the need for environmental sustainability in a changing world (Almanac March 20, 2001).

In 1969, students at Penn’s GSFA (now the Weitzman School of Design) founded an Earth Week Committee to air concerns about pollution, share resources and plan a week-long event in April 1970 that would bring attention to the planet’s plight. As local media announced the committee’s plans, businesses and civic leaders, both in Philadelphia and in other cities around the country, joined forces with these Penn students and their legendary leader, Dr. McHarg, professor of landscape architecture and regional planning. Dr. McHarg had a deep knowledge of the intersection of design and environmental conservation, having written a book on the subject, Design With Nature, in 1969. With the help of these leaders, the Philadelphia rally expanded from a Penn campus gathering to a city-wide event at Fairmount Park’s Belmont Plateau. A national teach-in was also proposed, as well as a similar rally in New York (Almanac April 10, 1970).

Criticism abounded: skeptics stated that the event would draw attention away from the United States’ struggles in Vietnam (Dr. McHarg: “the people who destroy the environment are equally prepared to destroy their fellow mankind”) and a Daily Pennsylvanian editorial columnist suggested that students had been distributing leaflets that ended up being dropped on the ground, contributing to the problem rather than solving it. However, the event itself drew a large audience. On April 21, 1970, a day of speeches at Independence Mall included appearances by Senator Hugh Scott and consumer rights advocate Ralph Nader. The next day, 25,000 people gathered at Belmont Plateau to hear speeches by Dr. McHarg (“why do I have to be the one to bring you the bad news? you’ve got no future!”), Maine Senator Edmund Muskie, City Councilman David Cohen, Nobel prize winner George Wald and beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Native American rock band Redbone, still four years from a national hit, “Come and Get Your Love,” also performed a set. The event raised money for the Ecology Fund, which planned to fund research and further Earth-related events.

Though Dr. McHarg and the event’s other organizers had hoped to make the event annual, it did not take on the necessary momentum, and by the 1980s, Reagan-era policies had undone much of the awareness that the 1970 Earth Week events had spread. In recent years, though, groups around the world have begun to build on Dr. McHarg’s legacy. In 1990, a new group founded Earth Week 20, an event that grew into an annual rally and continued to spread awareness of environmental conservation. In 2019, Penn founded the McHarg Center to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Design With Nature. The McHarg Center brings together thought leaders in urban ecological design.

Tomorrow, April 22, at noon, Penn Sustainability will host a BlueJeans webinar that features a panel of environmental leaders discussing power purchase agreements, and how Penn will support the construction of two new solar energy facilities, an apt continuation of Dr. McHarg’s work. Register at bit.ly/pennppa101