“Treat the Earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”   

                                     —Native American proverb

Earth Day is Wednesday, April 22. It is the 45th anniversary of a movement that kicked off in 1970 during the height of the nation’s hippie and flower-child culture. That was a generation that wasn’t afraid to hit the streets to protest what it saw as injustice, from the denial of basic civil rights based on the color of one’s skin to America’s involvement in the war in Vietnam. And, in 1970, those same people took to the streets again to voice their concern over the threats posed to clean air and drinking water.

The days of bell-bottom jeans and tie-dyed peace shirts may be long gone, but prot...