Millions of people around the world will pause, at least for a moment, to mark Earth Day. The annual event is Wednesday. It was founded by people who hoped to stir activism to clean up and preserve a planet that's now home to some 8 billion humans and trillions of other organisms. Earth Day has its roots in growing concern over pollution in the 1960s. That's when author Rachel Carson's 1962 book "Silent Spring," about the pesticide DDT and its damaging effects on the food chain, hit bestseller lists and raised awareness about nature's delicate balance. A U.S. senator from Wisconsin, Democrat Gaylord Nelson, had the idea that would become the first Earth Day in 1970.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has a message for environmentalists who despair at the the approach of President Donald Trump's administration: "Stop whining and get to work." The new U.S. administration has taken an ax to Biden-era environmental ambitions, rolled back landmark regulations, withdrawn climate project funding and instead bolstered support for oil and gas production. The former Republican governor of California has devoted time to environmental causes since leaving political office in 2011. On Tuesday at the Austrian World Summit in Vienna, Schwarzenegger pointed to examples of local and regional governments and companies taking action and argued 70% of pollution is reduced at the local or state level.
