Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, founded in 1970 by a mix of senators and young activists, marked with a protest of 20 million people across the U.S. Coming in the years after the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which prompted widespread alarm over the impact of human activity on the natural world, that first protest marked an explosion of environmental activism—and helped spur a rapid expansion of government legislation to protect animals, water sources, air, and people, the bedrock of environmental protections in the U.S.
The obvious question, half a century later, is: How far have we come since then? The answer, scores of climate experts will tell you, is not nearly far enough. Last year, the Trump administration officially gave notice that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the largest global commitment the world has made to avoid the worst results of climate change, but many states said they would continue to honor the agreement.
The spread of COVID-19, and the ensuing global lockdowns and financial crisis, now claim our full attention—often at the expense of our efforts to limit climate change. At first glance, it may seem natural that our current crisis overrules the ongoing crises of changing temperatures and biodiversity loss, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Virologists and scientists say that our broken relationship with nature is at the very heart of this pandemic. Accelerating biodiversity loss—caused by a mix of pollution, over farming, urbanization, and changing temperatures—has made complex ecosystems much simpler and more unstable. That makes it easier for viruses to jump from animals to people, as they have begun to do with alarming frequency.
There is no simple solution to COVID-19. There is also no simple solution to turning back the clock on 50 years of rising temperature and lost ecosystems. But even in the months and years before the global pandemic turned daily life upside-down, demands from regular people were gaining greater momentum, forcing governments to reimagine energy and food systems and businesses to redesign vast supply chains—in a push to get emissions to effectively zero by 2050.
Frequently, those demands have been the loudest from young people, who last September once again took to the streets worldwide in millions. But central bankers, finance ministers, and CEOs of some of the world’s largest companies have also joined the chorus of voices demanding dramatic change. Some of those voices represent remarkable turnarounds: Last week, the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell—the world’s largest publicly held oil and gas company—said it, too, would cut emissions to “net zero” by 2050.
The horror of the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken global health systems and economies. It has also overturned expectations of what the future will look like—and how, as the world reopens, businesses and communities will rebuild. That offers a chance: not just to try to turn the clock back to “business as usual,” but back to the vision set out by organizers and politicians on April 22, 1970. After all, half a century after the world marked the first Earth Day, the world is facing the prospect of not having another fifty years to wait.
Scroll below to explore the history of Earth Day through photographs.
More must-read energy sector coverage from Fortune:
—Why the coronavirus crisis could make Big Oil greener
—How Global 500 companies are responding to the coronavirus
—IEA warns of “staggering” demand drop in global oil markets
—Crude math: Why $10 oil could be worth less than nothing—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: PSEG CEO on climate change action: “It should have been done yesterday”
Subscribe to The Loop, a weekly look at the revolutions in energy, tech, and sustainability.
