April 22, 1970 was the first earth day. It was a day created by activists who wanted to bring to greater public attention the environmental problems that were increasingly plaguing our world. We seemed as though we were too self-focused and ignorant of the world around us.

Thirty-seven years since little has changed. We have learned that we can save the environment, but that saving the planet is a difficult political choice. What is right is rarely clear. We have to decide what is the best use of our land, how to best respect it. We have to choose between defiled landscapes and the smart use of land.

Environmental problems still remain difficult to solve to today. They are larger then us, they often involve massive quantities of pollutants and ways of life that are so ingrained in our culture. It is difficult to change ourselves, and to a large part we have been unsuccessful at changing our toxic society.

At the same time we must realize that the environmental problems of the day are not the fault of individual choices, but that of a society. People are created in the society they live in, and it takes the acts of many to destroy a habitat or poison our water. Norms change the world, policies don't on their own. We've come to better understanding of our world today then ever before.

Our environment is markedly cleaner then it was 37 years ago. People became more aware of their actions, and governments across the world stepped up to limit and regulate the release of pollutants. We learned that rivers mattered, as did air quality. We learned that we couldn't just throw it all away – we had to do something to slow the consumptive society.

We took ownership of the land both in a public and private sense. The commons after earth day seemed to matter, even in an era of ultra-capitalism. We learned that the environment could be saved.