Remarks by the President at Earth Day Reception

5:20 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody!  (Applause.)  How are you? This is a good-looking crowd.  (Laughter.)  Thank you so much, everybody, for coming. 

Today we celebrate 40 years of Earth Day.  Now, obviously Earth has been around longer than that.  (Laughter.)  But we have been celebrating Earth Day for 40 years -– which was a bright moment in our nation’s history and a milestone in the ongoing fight to protect our environment.

Many of you know the history.  In 1970, a senator from Wisconsin named Gaylord Nelson — (applause) — hired a young graduate student named Dennis Hayes –- who is with us today.  Where’s Dennis?  There he is.  (Applause.)  He still looks like  a young graduate student.  (Laughter.)  And so Dennis helped to coordinate the first Earth Day.  And together, they raised their voices and called on every American to take action on behalf of our environment.

And in the four decades since, millions of Americans have heeded that call and joined together to protect the planet.  And we’ve made immense progress since that day –- from the landmark legislation of the 1970s, the Clean Air and the Clean Water Act, to the conservation of America’s precious landscapes. 

I know that many of you have played an important role at one stage or another in these victories, and their impact can be felt today and will be felt tomorrow