What Makes Earth Month So Special?
- Jann Alexander
- 5 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Nearly a century ago, the unthinkable happened: The U.S. was five years into the biggest ecological disaster we'd ever known. And then came Black Sunday.
We know it now as The Dust Bowl era, caused by a land rush on overgrazed ranch land sold cheaply to unsuspecting farmers and speculators, abandoned when prices fell in the midst of drought. By 1935, the Southern Plains states had already experienced nearly five years of drought and high winds.
But the duster on Sunday, April 14, 1935 was the most notable of perhaps hundreds that had already prompted mass migration from the Plains states. It became known as Black Sunday — because it was a rolling mass of tumbling black soil, hundreds of feet high, that darkened the sun, suffocated entire towns, and struck elders and children alike with the "brown plague"— the deadly dust pneumonia.
Dust storms clockwise from top left: Oklahoma, Texas, Texas, Kansas; Library of Congress, NOAA
The upshot? Over that decade known as the "Dirty Thirties," over 2.5 million Americans migrated away from the Great Plains states, with more than half a million people left homeless. There were approximately 7,000 deaths from dust pneumonia and suffocation.
Thirty-five years later, our environment would once again come in to focus.
The first Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970, with the goal of bringing the environment into the national spotlight. An estimated 20 million people nationwide attended the inaugural events held around the country that encouraged environmental action, and opposed environmental degradation.
Since then, every April, we celebrate our one and only special Earth — as history reminds us — so we shall never forget.
By July 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in response to the growing public demand for cleaner water, air, and land. Its mission was to protect the environment and public health. The grassroots movement behind Earth Day eventually led to the enactment of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts.
But one day wasn’t enough to achieve the climate solutions envisioned by the national movement, so Earth Month was created. By 1990, Earth Month had become a global event, with 200 million participants from 141 countries joining the initiative. Since then, in April, we celebrate our one and only special Earth — and history reminds us.
In April 1935, one day was enough — enough to show the country that over half a million Americans were homeless on their barren land, which deserved federal intervention. Within two weeks, Congress passed the Soil Conservation Act, which created a permanent agency to guide restoration in the hard-hit states and maintain natural resources everywhere.
The agency familiarly known then to farmers and bankers as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) has become the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) today. Its mission is the same: to work with land owners and users in all 50 states — to reduce soil erosion, improve forest and field land, improve farm yields with less-thirsty crops, and develop and protect natural resources.
Unspoken opens on Black Sunday in the Texas Panhandle, considered the epicenter of the Dust Bowl. The sudden drama of that bright clear day in 1935 inspired my story of scattered family, and their lost mother and abandoned daughter.
This year, the 90th anniversary of Black Sunday, April 14, 2025, arrives with the publication of UNSPOKEN, A Dust Novel.
Sources:
Vast troves of my personal research done for my books in The Dust Series
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