Earth Day 1970-2017: What's Changed?
Earth Day 1970 – 2017: What's Changed? - Visual Cue Transcript
[music]
WORDS APPEAR: The first Earth Day was in 1970. What's changed since?
A spinning globe becomes the head of a stick figure. The stick figure multiples, representing population growth since 1970.
WORDS APPEAR: Since Earth Day 1970, our population has doubled.
FOOTNOTE: Global population in 1970: 3.7 billion, in 2017: 7.5 billion
A graph forms. Bubbles representing carbon dioxide emissions emerge on the graph, one for each year from 1970 through 2015, with the bubbles becoming larger over time.
WORDS APPEAR: Since Earth Day 1970, we're emitting 2.4 times more CO2...
FOOTNOTE: Global CO2 emissions in 1970: 14.9 billion tons, in 2015: 36.3 billion tons
The bubble graph transforms into a line graph that shows temperature rise from 1970 through 2016, amounting to a 0.97°C increase.
WORDS APPEAR: ...causing temperatures to rise.
FOOTNOTE: Global surface temperature in 1970: 0.02°C higher than the 20th Century average, in 2016: 0.99°C higher than the 20th Century average
The line graph becomes a wavy line representing the surface of the ocean. A large block of ice is bobbing in the water. The block of ice melts into a smaller block, representing the decline in sea ice since it was first measured in 1979.
WORDS APPEAR: Since Earth Day 1970, sea ice has melted. 13.3% decline per decade.
FOOTNOTE: Arctic sea ice minimum in 1979: 7.2 million square kilometers, in 2016: 4.7 million square kilometers
A city skyline appears beyond the wavy ocean surface. The waters rise. The total rise is shown to be 10.8 centimeters.
WORDS APPEAR: Since Earth Day 1970, sea levels have risen.
FOOTNOTE: Global average sea level (compared to 1880) in 1970: +11.9 centimeters, in 2015: +22.7 centimeters.
A circle appears in the middle of the screen, labeled 1970. Within the circle, a motif of corn crops is overlaid with water. A larger circle, labeled 2014, appears, with more crops and more water. The area of the 2014 circle is 80% larger than the 1970 circle, representing an 80% global increase in the area of irrigated land over that time period.
WORDS APPEAR: Since Earth Day 1970, more cropland is using more freshwater.
FOOTNOTE: Irrigated land in 1970: 184 million hectares, in 2014: 332 million hectares
The circles of crops turn into a series of pie charts, indicating that populations of land vertebrates (such as mammals) have decreased 38%, populations of marine vertebrates (such as sea turtles) have decreased 36%, and populations of freshwater vertebrates (such as fish) have decreased 81%.
WORDS APPEAR: Since Earth Day 1970, wild animal populations have shrunk.
FOOTNOTE: Population sizes of 3,706 monitored species have declined 58% between 1970 and 2012.
[animal sounds]
A series of silhouettes are drawn on screen and identified as the golden toad, the Saudi gazelle, and the New Zealand bush wren, all extinct.
WORDS APPEAR: Since Earth Day 1970, over 170 animal species have been declared extinct.
[upbeat music]
As the music changes to an upbeat tune, the background switches from black to sky blue.
WORDS APPEAR: Since Earth Day 1970, our world has also changed for the better. In the US, the Clean Air Act was signed in 1970.
Richard Nixon's signature is scrawled across the screen. The signature melds into a bar graph.
WORDS APPEAR: In the US after the Clean Air Act, key pollutants have decreased (-71%), even as we've used more energy (+44%), driven more miles (+184%) and seen our economy grow (+246%).
FOOTNOTE: The Clean Air Act covers carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, lead, volatile organic compounds, and particulates.
[traffic sounds]
A car drives across the screen, leaving behind a cloud of exhaust. The cloud shrinks in size by 99%.
WORDS APPEAR: In the US after the Clean Air Act, new cars, trucks and buses are 99% cleaner.
The exhaust cloud becomes a circle representing lead levels in children's blood in 1970. A smaller circle—90% smaller—represents lead levels in children's blood in 2012.
WORDS APPEAR: In the US after the Clean Air Act, unleaded gasoline means less lead in children's blood. Down over 90%.
FOOTNOTE: Median blood lead levels in children aged 1-5 in 1976: 15.0 micrograms per deciliter, in 2012: 1.0 micrograms per deciliter.
The screen fades to white. Two stacks of eagle silhouettes form a bar chart representing the number of nesting pairs in 1974 versus 2006—a 12-fold increase.
WORDS APPEAR: In 1972, the US banned DDT. Bald eagles returned from the brink.
FOOTNOTE: Nesting pairs in the lower 48 states in 1974: 791, in 2006: 9,789
The eagles fly away and the screen fades to white again.
WORDS APPEAR: In 1987, the world banned CFCs. Ozone-depleting emissions down 98%.
A hazy line, representing the Earth's ozone layer, deflects beams of radiation from the Sun.
WORDS APPEAR: The ozone layer has stabilized and begun to recover, preventing an estimated 2 million skin cancers per year.
FOOTNOTE: The ozone layer is projected to return to 1980 levels by 2050-2070.
The ozone layer transforms into a graph spanning the years 2015 to 2100. Bubbles appear on the graph, representing projected CO2 emissions over that timeframe. The size of the bubbles get much smaller by 2100.
WORDS APPEAR: In 2015, 197 countries agreed to dramatically reduce CO2 emissions.
FOOTNOTE: The Paris Agreement limits warming this century to 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
The bubbles float away. The spinning globe takes center screen again.
WORDS APPEAR: What will future Earth Days look like? Together, we decide.
The first Earth Day was in 1970. What’s changed since? Our population has doubled. We’re emitting 2.4 times more CO2. Sea levels have risen 4 inches. But the world has also changed for the better. See how our actions since 1970 have added up.