Behind the Photo That Made People Think Earth Day Was Founded by a Convicted Killer

Ever since 20 million people took to American streets on April 22, 1970, over the lack of regulation of corporations’ pollution, Earth Day has been an annual chance to motivate citizens to do something good for the planet. The protests and the movement of which they were part helped lead to the creation that year of the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to do just that, and President Bill Clinton later awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom to environmentalist and U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson for leading the charge in founding Earth Day. Even so, some confusion remains over who founded Earth Day — and whether, as one headline put it, an Earth Day co-founder killed his girlfriend and “composted” her body. That confusion is thanks in part to the photo above, which shows a man standing at the podium for Philadelphia’s 1970 Earth Day observations. The man in the photo is Ira Einhorn, who in the 1960s and early ’70s was known as an academic expert on the counterculture movement. While teaching at his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, he “once reportedly broke out the joints, stripped naked and danced in the classroom,” TIME reported — and at Harvard University he once said “a little more hugging could do Harvard a lot of good.” Despite his unconventional methods, he did have a way with conventional types, and was well known as a smooth-talker who could hook up fellow crusaders with funding for th...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Environment Source Type: news