Day 2 of excerpts from my research on kids and the environment for #EarthDay2020 ! By 1967, kids’ submissions to @Highlights were showing an increased awareness of pollution and a connection to nature, particularly trees. 1/7

In March 1967, a 10 year-old Kansan boy wrote about the pollution caused by city buses: “the gas smell fills the air,/Smoky, smelly, everywhere.” A boy from PA drew a picture of a car in a city with huge amounts of smoke coming from its tailpipes. 2/7

Certainly, air pollution was on kids’ minds in the years leading up to #earthday . A lack of nature in urban areas was too. In 1968, a young man from Milwaukee noted that “in the city/Few will know…Spring in its beauty/Won’t be seen,/For there won’t be any fields of green.” 3/7

Expansion & development prompted outcry, particularly when it involved bulldozing trees. In 1969, a 9 yr old CA girl lamented “they chopped down my tree,/And hauled it away… how pretty it looked with its silvery gown./Why, did they cut it down?” She missed the tree’s beauty, 4/7

but also realized its role within her neighborhood–the tree had given birds homes and sheltered cats fleeing from dogs. These types of microworks contrast with the early 1960s pro-growth, pro-extractive industries submissions. 5/7

So, by the late 1960s we start to see some connections to the activism of today: (1) an awareness of the pollution issues around them; (2) critiques of adult actions favoring growth over nature; and (3) a recognition of the role of nature within a broader system. 6/7

Tomorrow, we’ll see how kids start to connect environmental issues to broader societal problems in the wake of #earthday ! 7/7