Every Day is Earth Day: Evidence on the Long-term Impact of Environmental Activism

Hungerman, Daniel M.; Moorthy, Vivek S.

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Every Day is Earth Day: Evidence on the Long-term Impact of Environmental Activism

NBER Working Paper No. w26979

55 Pages Posted: 13 Apr 2020 Last revised: 21 Mar 2026

See all articles by Daniel M. Hungerman

Vivek S. Moorthy

Florida State University

Date Written: April 2020

Abstract

We explore the importance of activism in the context of Earth Day. We use variation in weather to study the long-term effects of the original Earth Day on attitudes, environmental outcomes, and children's health. Unusually bad weather in a community on April 22, 1970, is associated 10 to 20 years later with weaker support for the environment, particularly among those who were school-aged in 1970. Bad weather on Earth Day is also associated with higher levels of carbon monoxide in the air and greater risk of congenital abnormalities in infants born in the following decades. These results indicate a long-lasting and localized effect of Earth Day, and show that there can be benefits to voluntary activity that would be impossible to identify until years after the volunteering occurs.

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Hungerman, Daniel M. and Moorthy, Vivek S., Every Day is Earth Day: Evidence on the Long-term Impact of Environmental Activism (April 2020). NBER Working Paper No. w26979, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3574443