Sandwiched between signings of the Wilderness Act and the Clean Water Act, the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970.  A lot has changed over four decades of the environmental movement, but one thing hasn’t changed—the need to track metrics and gauge progress.  Here at Corona, we thought it would be fun to dig into the numbers, and see what has happened around the world and around Denver since the first Earth Day.

  • 192 countries participating in Earth Day 2013.  Source: www.earthday.org
  • 76 miles of Colorado’s Cache la Poudre River that are designated at Wild and Scenic.  Source: www.rivers.gov/rivers/rivers/cache-la-poudre.php
  • 33 animal and plant species listed as threatened or endangered in Colorado by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 1973.  Source: www.fws.gov/endangered
  • 20,000 commuters who participated in Denver’s Bike to Work Day in 2012. Source: biketowork2013.org
  • 3 major revisions of the Clean Air Act since 1970.  Source: www.epa.gov/regulations/laws/caa.html
  • 153 feet to the top of the tallest Blue Spruce in Colorado, discovered in rural Mineral County.  Source: www.coloradotrees.org/programs.php#champion
  • 316,000 jobs supported by tourism and recreation at national parks, wildlife refuges, and other lands managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Source: www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/2010_02_23_release.cfm
  • 4 climate change assessment reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change between 1990 and 2007.  Source: www.ipcc.ch
  • 10,362 pounds of carbon dioxide emitted per capita in 2009.  Source: data.worldbank.org/topic/environment
  • 143 years since the birth of Enos Mills, the father of Rocky Mountain National Park.  Source: EnosMills.com
  • 70 miles of salmon habitat restored when the National Park Service removed the Elwha Dam in 2011.  Source: www.nps.gov/olym/naturescience/elwha-ecosystem-restoration.htm
  • 6,973,738,000 people living on Earth who can help conserve our natural resources.