This week marks the 40th anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement, a decision that shaped Earth Day as the first radical nationwide rally to force a political agenda for the planet.

In September 1969, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson announced that the first Earth Day would be a series of environmental teach-ins on college campuses, scheduled for April 22, 1970. In December 1969, Senator Nelson and the first Earth Day national coordinator, Denis Hayes, surveyed the tense political and social climate of the U.S. – at war in Vietnam and drowning in pollution – and fundamentally shifted the Earth Day agenda into a national day of protest for environmental action.

Forty years later, Earth Day Network is now calling for new domestic and global climate legislation to mark the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day in 2010. Earth Day Network is working to reignite this generation, the Green Generation™, with the vigor and passion of the first Earth Day, and call for renewable energy, green jobs and a new green economy.

Earth Day is a referendum calling for immediate legislative action on climate change. Earth Day Network intends for April 22, 2010 to be the largest Earth Day movement to date – one that will positively impact environmental policy and practices worldwide.