Environmental Literacy Quiz

Earth Day falls on April 22nd. This is a nearly 50 year old tradition, established in 1970, dedicated to bringing the environment to the forefront. Each year, Earth Day Network works to bring together communities around the world in a huge campaign to tackle modern-day environmental problems in effort to continue the Earth Day tradition. For more information, check out our website.

Published in 1962, Silent Spring was an extraordinary book that opened the public’s eyes to the dangers of DDT, the first broadly-used synthesized pesticide, to wildlife and human health. Due to the public outcry raised by Silent Spring, DDT was banned in 1972, but the impacts of Carson’s book did not end there. For the first time, the environment became a part of the public consciousness, and more than 50 years later, we see the affects of that as people across the world take up Carson’s banner in the modern-day environmental movement.

The idea for a national day to focus on the environment came to U.S. Senator, Gaylord Nelson, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, Senator Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media. Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land, and April 22, falling between Spring Break and Final Exams, was selected as the date.

Support for the environment has never been just a partisan effort. In fact, the first Earth Day in 1970 was created as a bipartisan effort and the co-chair of the original teach-in was Pete McCloskey, a Republican congressman.

By the end of 1970, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act had all been passed in a series of landmark environmental victories. However, the Marine Mammal Protection Act was not passed until two years later. The legislation protects all marine animals, with certain exceptions, under the “take” prohibition.

This couldn’t be more false. You should always care about the environment and act to protect it. Earth Day just brings together people from across the world in a huge effort to do so.

On Earth Day 2016, 174 countries and the European Union signed the Paris Agreement at the opening ceremony at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The Conference of Parties (COP) is an international political response to climate change which began in 1992. COP21, also known as the Paris Climate Conference, brought parties together to achieve a universal goal on climate: keeping global warming below 2° C.

There are no national standards regarding environmental education in the U.S. Environmental education is treated on a state-by-state basis. One of Earth Day Network’s primary goals to support and promote comprehensive environmental education as part of the curricula in every school in the US and in the world.

Environmental education does not advocate a particular viewpoint. Rather, it welcomes all kinds of perspectives to solve environmental issues. However, environmental education should always be fact based. For example, it is factually known that climate change is real and that humans are part of the cause.

The National Environmental Education Act of 1990 required the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be a leader in promoting environmental literacy. The EPA later established the Office of Environmental Education to better carry out the act.