On this date in 1970, the topic of discussion temporarily shifted from ending the Vietnam war to saving the only planet known to support human life. Earth Day was born.
Locally, the Frankfort Audubon Society was about to undertake a trash cleanup on Elkhorn Creek, a long-neglected treasure of the central Kentucky region. The sewage gushing out of Lexington was so poorly treated that sometimes billows of soap suds sloshed through Franklin County, 25 miles away. As a smallmouth bass fishery of legendary repute, the Elkhorn was in trouble. Tons of trash would be picked up from its banks a few months later. The Kentucky Water Pollution Control Commission would eventually take action to force improvement of Lexington's sewage treatment plant.
It can be debated how much progress has really been made. Billions of dollars have been spent upgrading sewage treatment plants around the nation but now it turns out the sewers themselves are a big part of the problem. Some cities, including Frankfort, are under federal mandate to repair the complicated collection systems that sometimes dump raw waste into waterways before it even gets to the treatment plants. While much of the emphasis was on rescuing major streams, the little ones that fed them were being steadily degraded by the overflows and by the proliferation of treatment plants that routinely broke down to turn the rivulets into open sewers.
Every year there are more trash cleanups and every year the volunteers face growing piles of refuse. Ours remains a throwaway society, so the frustrating work never really gets done.
Meanwhile, climate change, widely believed to be influenced by human activity, is a growing concern. And
that has transformed the whole idea of air pollution, which in 1970 was symbolized by smokestacks belching black smoke and toxic substances. Carbon dioxide, the odorless and invisible gas blamed for creating the "greenhouse effect" that warms the planet's atmosphere, stirred relatively little worry at the time of the first Earth Day. Now that most fundamental byproduct of combustion is getting more attention even as the world fails to agree on ways to limit its output. Frankfort has its own citizens committee on climate change and energy efficiency and this week the city transit system is offering free rides on its buses to emphasize the importance of transportation that limits greenhouse gases. Still missing is decisive action against urban sprawl and its reliance on automotive transport.
Coincidentally, there is a new initiative to build a hydroelectric power plant on the dam at Lock 4. Kentucky River Authority and Frankfort Plant Board officials are skeptical but coal-generated electricity, long the rule in Kentucky, is among the biggest producers of greenhouse pollution. The cost of removing the carbon emissions could make hydropower a more feasible alternative than in previous times.
Saving the world certainly hasn't gotten any easier over the last 38 years. While picking up trash and recycling tires for playground surfacing material are nice gestures, there's much more challenging work ahead if future Earth Days are to become a time of celebration rather than elegy for the remembered beauty of a home we have squandered.