Earth Day at 45: Denis Hayes on going global, 'dreadful failure' of climate action

clock

The annual holiday synonymous with environmentalism has gone global four decades after its inception, but those closer to home question what should come next

Forty-five years ago, cars belched lead-based fuel exhaust, a river in Ohio was so polluted that it caught fire and some 80,000 barrels of oil spilled into the ocean near Santa Barbara, California, devastating...

To continue reading this article...

Join BusinessGreen

In just a few clicks you can start your free BusinessGreen Lite membership for 12 months, providing you access to:

  • Three complimentary articles per month covering the latest real-time news, analysis, and opinion from Europe’s leading source of information on the Green economy and business
  • Receive important and breaking news stories via our daily news alert
  • Our weekly newsletter with the best of the week’s green business news and analysis

Join now

 

Already a BusinessGreen member?

Login

More on Climate change

'We all have a role to play': Major new study claims an equitable net zero transition is 'materially possible'

'We all have a role to play': Major new study claims an equitable net zero transition is 'materially possible'

Political choices rather than 'technical impossibility' are the key barrier to achieving higher living standards while meeting global climate goals, leading economists claim

Stuart Stone
clock 04 June 2026 • 4 min read
Global Briefing: Spain earmarks €9bn for housing and transport in 'Social Climate Plan'

Global Briefing: Spain earmarks €9bn for housing and transport in 'Social Climate Plan'

May temperatures in Saudi Arabia reaching extremes previously confined to summer , report finds countries can ‘dramatically impact’ plastic pollution without global consensus, and Spain earmarks €9bn for energy transition

Stuart Stone
clock 29 May 2026 • 8 min read
WMO: World set to face yet more record hot years this decade

WMO: World set to face yet more record hot years this decade

UN's World Meteorological Organisation warns it is 'very likely' that global temperatures will temporarily exceed 1.5C for at least one year by 2030

clock 28 May 2026 • 4 min read