Amazing Wildlife: A San Diego Zoo PodcastEarth Day is celebrated on April 22, but around here, every day is Earth Day. In this episode, hosts Rick and Marco discuss the origins of Earth Day and why it was first established in 1970. After starting in the U.S., the holiday is now observed in many nations around the world. Listen in to learn how preserving the environment benefits humans and wildlife alike.
Hi, I'm Rick Schwartz.
What is the s world? Al Marco went Welcome.
To Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of wildlife from around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts.
This podcast is a production of.
iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and international nonprofit conservation organization which oversees the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park.
What a beautiful day, Erek, I mean, Earth they just happened, right, And we're here this morning at the San Diego Zoo. We're surrounded by we got some lama, some monacas were one.
Side and are there's the condors and some ravens.
They're looking really good.
It reminds us, see, right, of the impact of what we can do globally to help about different species. By condor is the perfect example, especially since Earth they just happened.
Yeah, and I really appreciate it you brought that up, because that's what I want to focus on in this episode. I think, because Earth they just happened, and you know, I know I grew up with Earth. They always being a thing. It's always been something we do. And as we're looking at the calendar, and we're deciding to episodes. You're just sinking we should dive into what started earth Day, Like why do we even have it?
Why is it important?
No?
I mean I really loved it too, you know, because everyone has like a different interpretation of what earth Day means to them, you know. I mean for me, it was like getting out in nature with my family and my friends and appreciating the trees and the clean air and the fresh water to drink right right.
And I love that you bring that up because a big part of why.
Earth they started back in the nineteen seventies was because there was not even an environmental Protection agency at that time. There were no laws in place to protect what you were just saying, you and your family going out enjoying the natural environments.
That wasn't even a.
Thing yet, No, you know exactly, you know, and even that time from your reference, so we're talking like nineteen seventy, right, it was when first Earth Day happened. And I admittedly, before this episode, I started doing a little digging in some research and I didn't realize that the amount of energy of activism happening during that time frame too. You know, some people in those government agencies were watching the anti war protests and really getting impassioned by the.
Youth and how they wanted to be part of the process, right.
Yeah, And so along with that, I find it really interesting that it was a senator from Wisconsin, his name was Gaylor Nelson, and there was a giant oil spill off of the coast of Santa Barbara. There was some three million gallons of oil, creating an eight hundred square mile oil slick, and he was flying over it and there was nothing in place to protect the environment. And of course you can't protect the environment, you can't protect a wildlife, so that's why it's important to us. It was said that there were over ten thousand birds, dolphins, heels, and sea lions perished because of that. He was moved by that, and like you said, there was also a lot of activism around anti war stuff, and so he got this idea that we should start creating rallies around protecting our environment because it protects us as well.
So it was really fascinating to see.
That it started with a senator in Wisconsin who saw this damage to the environment realizing we need to do something about it.
That started this whole process of Earth Day that we have today.
Yeah, O kidding, right, I mean the word for me is like inspiration, right, I mean he got inspired by that, by the activism that was happening at the time. And I got to bring up a lady that absolutely named do Lotus. What she did a lot of activist work in California for undocumented immigrants, for farmers out there, and she's got this quote that it resonated me since I was a kid.
I got right here. I want to read it, pray about it.
It says every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, and every minute a chance to change the world.
I mean how great is that?
Right?
Yeah?
And Earth Day I think fits perfectly into that, you know. I mean you were referencing nineteen seventies at first Earth Day and we should probably talk about this specific day right April twenty second, Yeah, go for it. Yeah, there were was some references to it. I mean it was sort of like, how do we get the youth involved into this? So we got to pick up a good time right like maybe right after spring break and right before some of those major holidays like Passover and Easter, let's say, right, so April twenty second was the day, and it was amazing the amount of people that got involved in that whole process.
Right, Yeah, And that's what I think is important message here too for our listeners, because I know we have a lot of listeners who love wildlife, love hearing out the animals.
We talk about love hearing.
Us converge with our wildlife care specialists, and this episode's a little bit different. Of course, it's just me and you, but I want our listeners to know that, yes, it was a senator who started this, but you know, you look further into the history, there were only a few rallies that occurred in the nineteen seventy time period that he started this.
Then it spread, if I.
Remember correctly, Not only did this rally and all this excitement start the Environmental Protection Agency, but then regular people picked up the ball, if you will.
And so it started to run with it as the metaphor goes.
And now it can be found in over one hundred and ninety three countries, but even in the nineteen nineties it was at one hundred and thirty countries. So it started off as an idea here in the US, just a few rallies but it really was the people. And like their quote said, it's like every minute, every person has the opportunity to do something. And that's what's really exciting about this is it really shines a light on Yes Earth Day is somebody now that we can look around, we have a lot of laws in place where surrounded right now, we have the condors just to the side of us over here and their story. You know, even with the Environmental Protection Agency being in place in the nineteen seventies because of Earth Day, they still had issues in their environment in the eighties that dropped their numbers so terribly low.
So it's a great example.
Yeah, you know, there was things starting, but more things needed to happen and more awareness. And that's because of this sort of empowerment if you will, around early amen and raising awareness were going hey, wait a minute, well, if the oils will cause this problem, what about lead poisoning in the wild, or what about these issues here that we're doing and being more thoughtful with what we're doing in our environment.
Yeah, I know one hundred percent, you know.
And while we're talking about this, I want to remind all the kids that are listening to like, you have a voice and you can take action not just on Earth Day on April twenty second, but every.
Day can be Earth there.
I mean even the things we all know, like recycling as an example, right, or planting a tree.
I mean you can decide on your own, like what.
Action you can take that particular of air throughout the year to make a good impact.
For the planet. Oh.
Absolutely, And I think one of my favorite things used to do a lot of in person talks with kids in school groups.
And you know you.
Mentioned recycling, but another really good and very impactful thing we can do, especially kids in school groups, or you know boy Scouts or Girl Scouts or any group of friends, do a park cleanup, do a beach cleanup, do a lakeside cleanup, a creek side and cleanup. We don't always think I want to save the elephants, I want to save the condors, right, I think, what are these big, grand things in faraway places? But the reality is every little bit makes a difference when we do something that impacts the environment good or bad. Whether you're not fixing the oil leak on your car so it washes into the streams, or whether you're going out with your friends to pick up and clean up an area, because what you're looking at then is what goes downstream from the park into the riverbed, into the ocean. All of that, it all adds up, and that's something super empowering. That is part of making a difference for our environment. And to the point then, Marco, you and I have talked at length in many episodes about, you know, the idea of taking care of the environment, because that takes care of our wildlife, and that is really where it comes down to, is can we start making a difference in our own personal environment to help.
Wildlife all over the world.
When you said, like the little accent you can take every day, you know, back to the kids again, you guys can do it as well. Like this morning, you guys, I try to shorten my showers as much as possible, so that's one thing for me. And remember what's going down my drain every time I'm cleaning my bathroom per se right, using more organic materials. And our conversation with Page for a last time yea, yeah, my brain exploded and she was talking about, you know, as opposed to using pesticides in your gardens, you know, and how that can impact negatively different species of not just butterfly, but other pollinators and insects in.
The world too.
Oh absolutely, I mean there's.
So many different actions. And you know, yesterday I was preparing for our episode Friend and I was at the Safari Park.
It was a gorgeous day.
The flers are out right, people were smiling, and I was kind of curious, like, what is Earth they mean for other people? So I kind of cruised around and asked some of our team members, and I wanted to bring up a couple because I was really inspired by for instance, Sherry, she's a volunteer that works at the Safari Park and she says, as a person who hikes all over San Diego, it means getting back to nature, taking care of trees and trails and forests, and it's interesting the perception are the ideas of what Earth they means for each individual. So for instance, there was Esteban. He was actually an se police officer, you know, visiting the park, and he was telling me, for him, it's embracing Mother Nature and that everything that it has to offer to get out there and have fun, to explore the earth and learn how it came to be and how it can make a better place for future generations to concept.
That was really great.
I was really great. I like that. Yeah, me too.
I was so pumpedous listening to everyone and their eyes just lit up when they thought about it, you know, because it affects everyone, right. I always like to bring that up. Regardless of who you are on the planet. You could be the emperor of the world or a little kid from the Vadio, like, we are all connected to this planet and we should all do something for it.
To your point, and no matter who you are, we're all downstream from somebody, which means somebody's downstream from us. And yes, if you don't live near a river or stream, it's kind of hard to visualize that.
But the wind blows whatever, there's.
An opportunity for us to take care and be good stewards of our immediate location, which then helps everybody else. And it's one of those things too, where I think we sometimes look around us right now, or it can be something that maybe even kids experience. They look around and to hear about an endangered species and it seems overwhelming and it seems like what can I possibly do? And it's a long term process of course, to help the environment, to help wildlife like that. But when we look back, we had the opportunity to see these successes. And one thing that I was really excited about when I was looking back at the Earth Day stuff and everything and how it came about, because there were so many disasters occurring that were impacting nature and wildlife, and one of the ones that was a subtle impact was a chemical called DDT. And in the same time in the seventies that Earth Day was getting off the ground and awareness was coming around, they noticed bald eagles were starting to really drop in population, and there was no obvious thing that anyone could look at and go, wait, what's causing this.
It became a realization though that.
DDT, which is a type of pesticide, I believe, yes, it was leaking into the water the fish were eating the plant material and everything else.
That was getting into everything.
The fish meat was then getting toxified with it. But it wouldn't affect the fish necessarily. But when the eagles would eat the fish, which is their main source of their diet, that the DDT, of all things, it made it so their eggs were very weak and very almost like crumbly, so they went without having young hatch because the eggs would break before they could hatch.
How sad, right when you think about it, right, yeah.
You think about it, it's like, wait a minute, we're doing this thing over here with the insecticide or whatever it might be, and then it washes down to the stream and then it gets into the lakes, and then also the eagles are perish.
Yeah, and it's just we wanted something to eat. I mean, it's an important thing.
I mean, not to make it light, but the connection of that, right, I was reading earlier this morning, like over thirty percent of the land on our planet is used for food, for growing food, right, so our daily needs impact wildlife to your point, and even to this day, we're still seeing effects of DDT.
We're still seeing it in waterways in the oceans.
And with that also microplastics is a big thing right now as well, and that's affecting a lot of animals.
The same idea, but to.
That point of DDT and the communities of the world realizing what's happening. You've got to save these beautiful raptors, and they got together and they passed the legislation, right, so things can happen, right.
Voting is important, definitely.
Trying to point that out and being active in your community, being active, your immediate impact is going to be in the space and where you live.
And going back to the bald eagles.
Now today here we are fifty years later, just about and their population stable.
They're no longer considered endangered species.
They are protected under other laws because they are a bald eagle. But the point being is I want kids to understand today that if you see and hear about species that are having challenges, that are endangered, they're critically low numbers. It can be disheartening, but it's also one of those things that should activate us to get involved because we can point to the bald eagle as a great example as to how we can turn things around. Once we understand what's going on with them, we change the way things are being done.
We still have farms, we still grow food, we.
Just do without, you know, and the eagles and everybody else are better off for it. So it's just one of those things where it's like sometimes it's a minor shift. Once we realize what's going on, we can make a big difference and these species can come back. And again, I go back to the fact that although yes, you and I and our listeners obviously are impassionate about wildlife and the environment, we humans benefit too when the environment is healthy.
One percent, friend, I mean blue planet, our happy humans is what we got. Distracting you guys, we sell the lamas.
In the back, but you know, speaking to where we're at right now, I mean we're in between these beautiful animals in South America and also against right. It's like distraction and these condors liked Ett and the eagles, the condors.
People can make a difference and save wildlife all over.
And I want to remind kids to you, you know, even though Earthday just passed, there's still so much you can do and so many fun activities that I found on earth day dot Org. A lot of fun projects and campaign you can be a part of every day and have a really great one this year about plastic Can I limit your plastic here? So I really encourage everyone to check out that website and see what you can do for the rest of the year right help about Mother Earth exactly.
And I know a lot of people understand the concept too that some plastics, even though we can put them in a recycling bin, they aren't recyclable, and so sometimes we feel kind of like our hands are tied. What you can do though, and kids, you know you can help your parents out with this. When you're shopping for things, be a conscious consumer. Can you buy things that have packaging that is recyclable or has packaging that is friendly too, whether it's biodegradable packaging or whatever it may be. And I got to say, I was grocery shopping other day with my daughter, and I remember a time where we would leave the grocery store with plastic bags best.
For vegetables, for fruit, and then for your groceries.
And now it's like it's second nature for us to just grab our own bags and do our own thing. And the type of bags they have at our grocery store for veggies are biodegradable.
Oh that's great.
So some of them, by the time you get home, they're already starting to disintegrate because the moisture from the vegetables or the fruit. And I look at that, I'm like, that's so cool. That's by next week, this isn'tven gonna be a thing. It's going to be deteriorated in the tracks totally.
Man.
And it brings about the idea of like everyone can choose what works for them, right, right, So maybe some people can't always buy organic at a grocery store, which I totally get, you know, but I was just thinking sometimes my family we would go to the farmer's market and you know, by by directly from Yeah, not only you're getting like the best quality food, but you're helping support the local farmers to right, that are trying to do good. I mean, we need to eat, we need to grow food for our communities, but we.
Can do it in a way that is beneficial not.
Only for human beings, but for ecosystems and wildlife to Yeah, there's some much we can do.
Yeah. I love the term sustainable balance.
Yeah. It recognizes the fact that we as a living creature need resources from the earth.
We just do.
But we can do it responsibly. We can do it with sustainability. We can do it thoughtfully and find that balance where it's like, yes, we do need resources from the earth, but we could do a really good job being a little more balanced.
Again, man, Yeah, so I really want to curiage all our listeners and again back to you kids out there the listening right now, Like get motivated, get in passionate, and become like an avenger for the planet. Right, I'm all about superhero, So I'm gonna use the avengel line, you know, put on that.
Cape, you guys, and pick something that's passionate for you.
You know.
It reminds me of my first time being an.
Activist or conservation Rick, you know, I was in high school and it took part of a program that we're trying to save the ecosystem arend a local lake Honjes right again, there was a development company that wanted to build, but we were trying to show them and the local university that was nearby too, that the fire in our areas here in this beautiful ecosystem of San Diego are beneficial for a lot of local plants and wildlife.
Right that it's a little.
Interim space in between these moments of growth in between this really vital ecosystem. And I felt so empowered that day being around not only other kids that were into the earth as I was, but even adults who were willing to volunteer their time and come together and do this thing. All of us in community, different ages, trying to do something good for the earth.
So it felt really really good.
And again it goes right into the fact of we each have our own ability to make a difference, and we get together, we create these rallies, we join other rallies in these moments to bring awareness to our impact as humans, and we have choices to make.
And again it goes back.
Yes, we do need resources, places to live, places to farm, but we.
Can do it sustainably.
We can do it with responsibility and with thought and consciously, you know, and that's what's so important.
Totally.
Yeah, before we wrap up, you know, we have all sorts of outside noises happening. You know, like we mentioned earlier, we got to Guanaco and the lamover one side, we got airplanes fine overhead.
The zoo's getting ready to open.
We got about ten more minutes that the zoo opens, so you know, all the bustle and the hustles happening around here. But I just want to remind everybody too that and Marco had said this earlier. Really every day's Earth Day. This episode comes out a few days after Earth Day. And if you might be listening to this in the middle of summer or in the fall, there's all always an opportunity to be thoughtful about our environment and Earth Days impact today is just as important as.
It was in the nineteen seventies to help us.
Bring awareness what's going on the environment around us and what we have going on our own backyard, especially how we can do something even if we're ten years old, you know, or fifty years old, whatever it may be.
Yeah, one or one hundred. Man, you can be an avenger for wildlife.
There you go, adventure for a wildness. I think it's an ally for wild LIFs.
I would go on the superherout, but ally or avenger.
You know, you pick your word sharing you rocket, well, I hear you man, Yeah, and you know, Rick, I mean Earth Days founders created and organized the very first Earth Day on April twenty second, nineteen seventy, right, and since then they've been mobilizing over a billion people annually on.
Earth Day and every other day to protect the planet.
Again, a great example how important is that each individual comes together because then you have numbers like that, right right, And I want to remind people too, you know, you can help us out that Sanagozu Wildlife Alliance has done so much and continues to do so much work around the world, but we cannot do it alone. I want to encourage everybody to SDZWA dot org. Not only can you if you want to come visit the Zooo Park, that's awesome, you know, definitely want to do that, but if you want to become a member, if you want to become an ally for wildlife. Like I said, we cannot do it alone. And our supporters play such a crucial role dedicated to partners. You know, people, anybody, regular people who love wildlife. If they join us by becoming a member, they help fund our conservation.
Projects all over the world.
They can volunteer their time, their knowledge, talk to other people, postings on social media from our social media as well. This allows us to create this awareness, this knowledge, and this passion other people so we can all work together to make a difference. And that's really where the impact is for Earth Day and for the work we do as an organization as well.
And the thing about like working together for all these different environmental projects, including endangered species, and we can really make a positive impact.
Right like your Baldegal story you talked about.
I'm so glad you brought that up, Marco, because that brings me right into getting everyone ready for our next episode. I want everyone to subscribe and be sure that they tune in next time when we talk about Endangered Species Day, but not to see endangered species.
We're also going to look at some species that have.
Had great success to come off the endangered species list.
I'm Marco Lent and I'm Rick Schwartz.
Thanks for listening. For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to SDZWA dot org. Amazing Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio. Our supervising producers are Nikia Swinton and Dylan Fagan, and our sound designers are Sierra Spreing and Matt Russell. For more shows from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
