What coronavirus tells us about climate change on Earth Day’s 50th anniversary

By Lynda V. Mapes Seattle Times environment reporter

Scott Andrews, left, reads the eulogy as other students bury “nature” in 1971 at Roosevelt High School in a belated... (Richard S. Heyza / The Seattle Times archive) — Scott Andrews, left, reads the eulogy as other students bury “nature” in 1971 at Roosevelt High School in a belated… (Richard S. Heyza / The Seattle Times archive)

The Seattle Times headline on Seattle’s first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, was prescient. So much so, it could have been written on this year’s 50^th anniversary of Earth Day.

“Pollution to Overheat Earth, Says Expert” was the headline stripped across the top of Page One. “The release of increasing quantities of carbon dioxide and thermal pollution into the atmosphere threatens to change global weather and melt the Antarctic ice cap, flooding wide areas,” the story reported.

Fifty years later, the pace toward warming predicted in the story by the late climatologist J. Murray Mitchell continues unchecked.

Organizers for Earth Day’s 50th anniversary envisioned a 1-billion-person, global commemoration marked with gatherings, marches, speeches, concerts and more. Years of work in the organizing — now canceled by the coronavirus pandemic. But the global standstil