Join UT’s Earth Day Celebration Thursday, April 23, from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., at the HSS Amphitheater. Celebrate the Earth, share ideas for local action, showcase environmental and responsible leadership, and create a marketplace for local and purposeful commerce.
Exhibitors include Keep Knoxville Beautiful, Knox Recycles, I Bike Knox, Sierra Club, and more. Don’t miss the e-waste recycling drive, green goody raffle, and granola “bar.”
For more about UT’s Earth Day and Earth Month celebrations, visit the Earth Month Events page.
How did Earth Day begin?
In 1962, Rachel Carson’s bestselling book Silent Spring set the stage for the environmental movement by raising public awareness of air and water pollution. Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. senator from Wisconsin, got the idea for Earth Day after witnessing the ravages of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, in 1969.
On the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets and parks to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests, and groups that had been fighting against industrial pollution and wildlife extinction realized they shared common values.
By the new millennium, Earth Day had grown into a global movement, mobilizing millions of people and lifting environmental issues like recycling and clean energy onto the world stage. Earth Day 2015 emphasizes the joining of sustainability, economic growth, and green living.
To learn more about the history of Earth Day, visit the Earth Day Network.
Want to learn more about environmental sustainability?
Pendergrass Library has book and e-book collections on environmentalism, sustainability, and green living. Check out our books on food and sustainability, rural development, sustainable forests, and biodiversity. Learn how you can live green by growing your own food and livestock at home.
UT’s Earth Day Celebration, April 23