These were the years of President Kennedy, the years of the Beatles topping the charts and of Jimi Hendrix. The years of protests against the Vietnam War. It was during that period that the idea of Earth Day was born: the beginning of what has since become the modern environmental movement.

It was 1962 when senator Gaylord Nelson first had the idea of bringing environmental issues into the spotlight, and doing so forcefully, so that the message would take hold both through public opinion and, more importantly, in the political world. He first proposed to President Kennedy a tour of conferences dedicated to environmental issues. In 1963, the president travelled across 11 states over five days devoted to environmental protection: that was the seed that would later germinate into Earth Day.

From the first conferences to the first Earth Day

In the years that followed, the senator continued to travel across the country, soon realising how widespread environmental degradation had become and how everyone seemed aware of it — except the political class. It was during one such speaking tour, in the summer of 1969, that Nelson noticed a certain energy stirring across university campuses: students and young people who had joined together in the movement against the Vietnam War.

And so the idea took shape: why not organise a protest movement rooted in ordinary people, one that would bring the issues of conservation and environmental protection into the public square?

The senator later declared: "it was a long shot, but it worked." In September 1969, Gaylord Nelson announced that in the spring of 1970 — on 22 April — there would be a major public demonstration in support of environmental protection.

Read also: How Earth Day was born

The response was electrifying: word spread quickly from coast to coast, thousands of letters, telegrams and phone calls criss-crossed the country, drawing in ever more people who finally had a clear rallying point and a place to start. It was thanks to ordinary people that Earth Day was a success: 20 million demonstrators took part, alongside thousands of schools and local communities. Today, Earth Day involves 175 countries around the world.