Over 20 million Americans participated in the first Earth Day in 1970, starting the modern environmental movement. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 established the first national policy to protect the environment and required environmental impact statements for federal actions. Congress also passed the Clean Air Act and created the Environmental Protection Agency in the 1970s to set and enforce pollution standards, as the decade saw increased attention on and reforms for environmental protection.

1. The Environmental
Decade
1970s

2. The First Earth Day
Over 20 million Americans participated in
this which started "the emergence of
modern environmentalism as a mass
social and cultural movement" (1970s).
This movement gained lots of media
attention because it was positive news
unlike the war news.

3. National Environmental Policy Act
- “provided the first important
national policy to protect the
environment” (1970s)
- “established a Council on
Environmental Quality (CEQ) to
provide ecological research and
required that environmental
impact statements be prepared
for major federal actions” (1970s)

4. Environmental Protection Agency
- “charged with creating national
pollution standards and enforcing them
in cooperation with states” (1970s)

5. Other Reforms
In the upcoming years, "Congress passed a
variety of laws protecting air, water, species,
lands, and public health" such as the Clean Air
Act (1970s).