Vanessa Furey, one of the organisers of the London march, says she was motivated by the “rise in fake news and ‘alternative facts’” during the past year, “and that quote from Michael Gove that ‘people have had enough of experts’”. Volunteers around the world are convening their own versions of this “March for Science”, to champion “evidence-based policies in the public interest”. This year, the Earth Day Network has teamed up with scientists for a rally on the National Mall in Washington DC. Now, according to its website, more than a billion participate in celebrations, teach-ins and protests around the world. In 1990, Earth Day went international, reaching 200 million people in 141 countries. Positive action … Denis Hayes, the founder of Earth Day. People are choosing to have diets for environmental reasons, choosing to have one child for environmental reasons.” And all that, he says, “didn’t come from political leadership at the top, it came from a bunch of demands down at the grassroots”. “We now have different kinds of buildings, different kinds of automobiles, different planes, different lighting, different land use. It sparked, he tells me, the most profound change in American society since the New Deal. “What we did was pull together an event that told all of those people, ‘You know you’ve really got something in common and this should be one big movement where we’re supportive of one another’.” Denis Hayes, now 72, was the man tasked with organising it. In Manhattan, and across America, “huge, light-hearted throngs ambled down autoless streets.” Earth Day had been born, an outburst of protest – and revelry – that involved everyone from save-the-whales activists to opponents of new freeways. ‘A n exuberant rite of spring” is how the New York Times described 22 April, 1970.
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