Earth Day, the annual day of environmental action and awareness, was first held on April 22, 1970. This past April 22nd, we finally ventured into the woods behind our house and pulled 4 putrid truck tires/mosquito farms out of the mud, along with about 200 pounds of scrap metal, engine parts, and farm equipment. The place used to be a dairy farm, and I guess "out of sight" was "out of mind". If it were still the 70's, cleaning up the woods would have been "outta sight" in a whole different way.
Here's a clip of The Crying Indian from the early 70's. OK, so Chief Iron Eyes Cody wasn't a real Native American after all. That didn't stop the ad campaign from having a tremendous effect back then. And it's no less relevant today.
Here are some links to check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day
http://www.kab.org/