#EarthDay2016

is tomorrow Fri April 22 | Hey @LASchools & @EagleRockElem let's make #EarthDayEveryDay @EPA  

​EPA History: Earth Day

The First Earth Day in April 1970 (https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/epa-history-earth-day)
It may be hard to imagine that before 1970, a factory could spew black clouds of toxic into the air or dump tons of toxic waste into a nearby stream, and that was perfectly legal. They could not be taken to court to stop it.

How was that possible? Because there was no EPA, no Clean Air Act, no Clean Water Act. There were no legal or regulatory mechanisms to protect our environment.

In spring 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day as a way to force this issue onto the national agenda. Twenty million Americans demonstrated in different U.S. cities, and it worked! In December 1970, Congress authorized the creation of a new federal agency to tackle environmental issues, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Follow these links to learn more!

• Energy Kids for Teachers
• Community Service Project Ideas
• Get Your Energy-Saving Questions Answered - Department of Energy
• Learning and Teaching about the Environment - Environmental Protection Agency
• Healthy Schools, Healthy Kids
• Science Fair Experiments - Energy Kids
• Science Fair Project Ideas - Environmental Protection Agency
• Activity: Energy Calculators
• Activities: Games, Quizzes and Other Cool Stuff - Environmental Protection Agency
• Activity: Happy Earth Day Activities Book
• Lesson Plans: Environmental and Science Ideas

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