Earth Day is now observed by more than a billion people worldwide, making it one of the largest civic events on the planet. Colcom Foundation, however, uses its history to ask a pointed question: what happened to the goal that helped launch it?
Population Stabilization Was Central in 1970
When the first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970, population growth was explicitly named as one of the environmental movement’s primary concerns. The modern movement that grew out of that moment achieved real victories: the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, tighter regulations on industrial polluters, and decades of investment in cleaner energy and more efficient technology.
Colcom Foundation argues that these victories, while genuine, have been systematically undermined by the failure to address population size. Between 1970 and 2021, per capita CO2 emissions in the United States fell by 35 percent. Over the same period, the population grew by 62 percent, from 205 million to 332 million, and total CO2 output rose by 15 percent. The efficiency gains were real. They were simply overwhelmed by more people.
The Original Goal Remains Unmet
The U.S. was consuming 227 percent of its available biocapacity in 1970. After fifty years of environmental effort, it was consuming approximately 240 percent in 2020. Per capita biocapacity use dropped by more than 20 percent, meaning every unit of increased total consumption came from population growth. North American bird populations declined by 2.9 billion. Land covered by development grew to encompass an area the size of three states.
Colcom Foundation holds that the environmental movement cannot achieve its core objectives while leaving population growth unaddressed. Colcom Foundation’s work is built on the conviction that the first Earth Day got this right, and that recovering its original scope is essential to making lasting progress on the other environmental challenges that have defined the movement’s agenda ever since. Read this article for more information.
Find more information about Colcom Foundation on https://www.colcomfdn.org/