The Promise of Nuclear Anxieties in Earth Day 1970 and the Problem of Quick-Fix Solutions

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhile the first Earth Day amplified the perceived importance of environmental regulations during the early 1970s, it had less success in altering the public’s relationship to the planet. To better understand these mixed outcomes, this article traces rhetorics of anxiety from discourses of the nuclear arms race to their appropriation in service of Earth Day 1970. Although these anxieties could have produced a reconsideration of environmental values, Earth Day’s coupling of these rhetorics with calls for civic engagements to immediately resolve audience concerns dissipated their critical energy. The conclusion argues that the success of the first environmental holiday’s anxious rhetorics points to the potential for using social media to agitate against the causes of climate change.