The first Earth Day was celebrated 40 years ago today. That was before the Environmental Protection Agency existed. Before the Clean Water, Clean Air and Endangered Species Acts were passed. And well before concerns over global warming.

Music for Earth Day

Antonin Dvorak takes us on a walk "In Nature's Realm" for this Earth Day...the morning continues to unfold in a bouquet of springtime waltzes and songs, Saint-Saens' "Carnival of the Animals", Francaix's "Flower-clock Suite", and a serenade to a tree from Handel's opera "Xerxes". 

Music for Earth Day, including From Grandmother's Garden by Amy Beach, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony (new recording from the Minnesota Orchestra and conductor Osmo Vanska), Adirondack Children's Songs by Gregg Smith, and much more.

For Earth Day, we'll hear (among other things) selections from Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde," Darius Milhaud's "La Creation du Monde," and Schubert's "trout" Quintet.

We celebrate a posthumous Pulitzer Prize recently given to the great Hank Williams Sr., and the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970.

Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. This morning we'll highlight musical interpretations of natural world: birds, frogs, insects, plants and flowers alike.

In an early celebration of Earth Day, VPR presents author and environmentalist Bill McKibben's presentation: "Vermont as a Hopeful Place."

In honor of Earth Day, a group of students from Rutland High School will be handing out homemade shopping bags today. Their goal?   To make people more aware of the environmental costs of using disposable plastic ones.  

Do we need to see the Earth's wonders in order to appreciate them? Commentator Ruth Page thinks not.

Steve Delaney talks with Brian McGrath of Green Mountain College. McGrath is coordinator of campus activities at GMC.

Earth Day is coming up next week - and all this week the Vermont Law School has been holding activities relating to the 35th annual event.

Reporter Candace Page spoke with VPR's Jane Lindholm about Earth Day and how it's changed over time.

Earth Day is being observed throughout Vermont today with a variety of activities. In Chittenden County, an effort is being launched to reduce homeowners' carbon emissions. And in southern Vermont, a beer company is about to invest in cleaner energy. VPR's Ross Sneyd has more.