Al Jazeera 25-min video: See footage of the monumental flop of the Earth Day rally on the National Mall Sunday; also hear political activist Michael Mann expound on Obama's political appointees, economics, and more

Why Americans doubt man-made climate change - Inside Story: US 2012 - Al Jazeera English

It was 42 years ago that the first Earth Day was organised in the US, drawing millions of Americans to rallies across the country calling for a sustainable environment.

Some consider that day to be the birth of the modern environmentalist movement in the US.

Today the day is marked by millions around the world but its impact in the US seems to have fizzled, with only dozens turning out at the National Mall in Washington DC on Sunday.

..."There's a real fallacy at work here, this idea that we can't simultaneously grow our economy and deal with environmental issues... Economists who have studied this say the cost of inaction down the road would be far greater than the cost of action now."

Michael Mann, the director of the Earth System Science Center, Penn State University