The first Earth Day in 1970 drew 20 million Americans calling for better environmental protection.

Think about that: 20 million people, on one day, with one message.

The level of civic engagement on that day led to ground-breaking reforms that still benefit us today, such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the development of the Environmental Protection Agency.

But today, Congress is stripping the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority. Environmental issues are taking the back burner. Even on campus, civic engagement to support sustainability and the environment is low, despite the fact that our increasing scientific understanding of these issues should yield a greater public urgency to lower our environmental footprint.

When citizens take even a small amount of time to come together and demonstrate a shared concern, people notice. The media notices. The government notices. The campus notices. In order to make progress toward a sustainable future, we must unite to make these powers notice our concern for the environment, too.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has demonstrated that it is, in fact, possible to succeed by impacting change. We just need to take a look at our definition of success and our definition of change.

“Success” should mean the entrance of an issue into the public discourse. “Change” should mean the transformation in public attitude toward an issue. Only when we change the conversation and acquire a new perspective can the entire country succeed.

This weekend, thousands of protestors are joining together with the Occupy Washington movement to rally against the Keystone XL Pipeline. The rally will literally circle the White House, sending a message that we care if the president of the United States is responsible for yet another enormous increase in climate change-causing emissions.

The protestors against Keystone XL and those in the Occupy movement have shown some of the largest displays of civic engagement since that Earth Day in 1970. And guess what? The media is noticing, and even the President has started commenting publicly on whether he will permit the pipeline to go forward. And every day in nearly every type of media outlet, the Occupy movement is still a top story, even after months of action.

But here in Champaign-Urbana during Sustainability Week, students will go about their days without entering the discussion. This isn’t because they do not care. It’s because they don’t know how to join, and they don’t know what their individual actions can really do. They don’t know that they can easily talk to the administration at any point to tell them what they care about and why they care, and they don’t know that they will be heard.

Here is what you can do. Tomorrow, our new chancellor will be at the University YMCA at 2:30 p.m. to talk with students about our priorities for a sustainable campus and environmental protection. This is our chance to literally enter the discussion in a big way. This is our chance to show the administration how many students care.

Get out, and make your voice heard. It doesn’t have to be tomorrow at 2:30 p.m., but it has to be done. It doesn’t have to end with 20 million of us, but it has to start with us.

_Emily is a junior in LAS and editor-in-chief of The Green Observer magazine._