the Union Oil Company spill in Santa Barbara in 1969
farm equipment for spraying ddt
a helicopter dusting an orange field with rust mite pesticide
Aerial view of the Colorado River reservoir and fields near Meeker
a humpback whale tail in the Hawaiian islands humpback whale national marine sanctuary
a pair of manatees in Florida's Crystal River
an American crocodile swimming
seized ivory burning in an anti-poaching display
a woman using bottled water to help her grandson brush his teeth
a line waiting to fill up on gas
trucks containing dangerous chemicals
a site around love canal
a man in a hazmat suit cleaning up a superfund site
the gates of the arctic national park in alaska
a whaler preparing to spear a sperm whale
a old Mcdonalds counter with styrofoam containers
cement pipes and blocks on the site of contaminated wells
a captive California condor
a woman spraying hairspray on her hair
a man holding a beaker of clean water from a sewage treatment plant
someone pulling medicine out of a vial into a syringe
asbestos mine
steam and smoke rise from the cooling towers and chimneys of a power plant
the rio earth summit in 1992
a black-footed ferret
environmental activist Erin Brockovich
a green designed school
Iguacu Falls in Brazil
a gray wolf in yellowstone national park
bald eagles
an eroding iceberg
a toyota prius factory
greenpeace activist
hemlock, spruce trees and a waterfall on central Chichagof Island
a sea of photovoltaic panels
waste management trucks in texas
elon musk presenting about tesla
Al Gore presenting for his documentary film
salmon fishing boats
an electric car factory
a pedestrian zone in central park
Recycling in New York City
the palmyra atoll
coral in cuba
the elwha dam
the Eiffel tower during the paris agreement
Smoke stacks at a power plant.
a lesser nose bat
someone hiking in death valley national park
students protesting at a fridays for the future protest
extremely light traffic for the region seen in an aerial view of the 10 and 110 freeway interchange in Los Angeles, California.
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The Union Oil Company’s oil spill in February 1969—which covered 800 square miles of ocean and shore in Santa Barbara, California, in crude oil—was widely televised, and it inspired then-Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin to organize the first Earth Day in 1970. That same year, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 went into effect, requiring every major decision of the federal government to be evaluated for its impact on the environment.
Photo by Vernon Merritt III, The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

51 years of environmental victories, in photos

On Earth Day, we look at annual conservation milestones since the first official day celebrating our planet in 1970.

BySydney Combs, Brian Clark Howard, and Lori Cuthbert
April 21, 2021

Another year, another Earth Day to add to the 50 years of environmental successes since the first was celebrated in 1970. Over the decades, momentum behind environmental conservation has ebbed and flowed, but each year has brought at least some signs of environmental progress, somewhere in the world. The pictures here symbolize that hopeful counterpoint—at the rate of one win per year—to the mounting challenges.

To mark this year’s anniversary, we note the clean skies the world experienced as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. As people holed up at home and vehicles vacated the roads, annual global energy-related emissions fell 5.8 percent, more than in any year since WWII, according to the International Energy Agency. 

The cleaner air was just one of the things about this strange and terrible year that made many people think harder about how humans manage the global environment—and about the possibility and urgent need of doing better.

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