In the late 1960s, Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson began to raise awareness for audiences across the country concerning environmental degradation. In 1970, Dennis Hays organized the country’s first Earth Day. Very little is known of Houston’s celebrations prior to the 20th anniversary of Earth Day in 1990, when as many as 40,000 people attended an event in Hermann Park.

That year, the national Earth Day Foundation tapped the CEC to direct Houston’s event, which blended entertainment that included bands such as Joe Ely and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, with environmental consciousness-raising by speakers such as agriculture commissioner Jim Hightower. Unfortunately, the trash facilities at the park were not sufficient for the crowd and the grounds were littered after the event, an image captured on video and displayed on the local television news. David Gresham, current executive director of the organization, explained that the CEC board in 1990 decided that, thereafter, they would leave event grounds cleaner than they had found them.

The following six years, from 1991 to 1996, Earth Day celebrations were held at the Museum of Natural Science and later around the reflecting pool at City Hall. The turnout during these years was nothing like the one in 1990, but they were still modestly well attended and grew from year to year.

From 1997-2001, the CEC partnered with local radio station KRBE, which at that time had a listening audience of 700,000 people. The first collaborative year, Top 40 musical acts, such as the Barenaked Ladies and Toad the Wet Sprocket, drew tens of thousands to the event at Buffalo Bayou Park. Some 20 nonprofit organizations set up booths on a variety of environmental issues. Unfortunately, the environment took a back seat to the entertainment. The message of Earth Day found itself competing with and eventually drowned out by the musical acts. Alesha Herrera, a CEC board member and the current chair of Earth Day, says the board tried to work with KRBE to bring the focus of Earth Day 1998 back to the promotion of environmental awareness and education. She said that on the surface, KRBE seemed very receptive to the CEC’s concerns. Yet for the subsequent four years, the KRBE-CEC Earth Day duplicated the crowd-pleasing formula of the 1997 event despite repeated efforts by environmentalists to reorient the celebration. There was also an ongoing dispute about the failure of KRBE to contract with greener vendors. In January 2002, the CEC requested that KRBE either put the Earth back in Earth Day or stop referring to the event as an Earth Day concert. When KRBE balked, the CEC severed its relationship with the station.

Meanwhile, dozens of smaller Earth Day celebrations had sprung up at schools, colleges, the Houston Zoo, and other institutional settings throughout the region. Mothers for Clean Air and other highly visible CEC member organizations began receiving more invitations each year to set up booths than they could accept.

The CEC partnered with the Rice University Environmental Club to host 2002 Houston Earth Day at Rice University. KRBE partnered with Green Mountain Energy to continue its own Earth Day concert tradition. At Rice, approximately 2,500 people attended the 2002 event. More than 60 booths were sponsored by local non-profit environmental organizations, green businesses, and other vendors. Local and global environmental issues took center stage as the focus of Houston Earth Day once again became the Earth. The Rice-CEC partnership has continued. Partners for this year’s event include the Hermann Park Conservancy, the Houston Zoo, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and Kids on the Bayou. The primary sponsor is this year is Marathon Oil, with Waste Management also lending generous funds to the event.

Despite having returned Houston Earth Day to its roots, the CEC is dependent upon corporate funding for the undertaking. This is nothing new. In the late 1990s, CEC’s Earth Days were sponsored by Enron. Corporate sponsorship of Houston Earth Day has been criticized by some who see corporations, especially those that seriously pollute, as using their sponsorships to seem more environmentally friendly than they really are. Critics also charge that heavily polluting companies, such as those in the oil and gas sector, would do more public good by upgrading their plants and refineries to reduce harmful emissions than by employing public relations campaigns to promote a green image. Marathon Oil’s senior manager of philanthropy and community affairs Jennifer Evans responded to the greenwashing criticism.

"There are some people who will never be satisfied with the commitment or level of commitment of energy organizations like ours," she said.

"Marathon has always maintained standards and met acceptable (federal) guidelines."

The most recent data from the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory reveals that Marathon is not the cleanest company in the city. Emissions from its Texas City facility create the second highest cancer risk of all producers of petroleum and coal products in Texas.

On the other hand, Marathon and the event’s other sponsor, Waste Management, support the causes of numerous non-profit social and environmental groups that may otherwise be unable to make an impact without corporate financial help. Environmental groups, with funds from industry, are able to educate Houstonians to environmental issues.

Corporations, in turn, are rewarded in the public eye for their support of environmental projects and organizations. In the end, those who benefit from this unlikely arrangement, are those who come to Houston Earth Day and leave with a greater understanding of local ecosystems and the world.

Charles Stillman is a researcher with the Citizens’ League for Environmental Action Now.