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When more than 20 million Americans participated in the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, at the behest of Sen. Gaylord Nelson, D-Wisconsin, the strong response led to a series of sweeping environmental laws passed by Congress to protect the nation’s air, water and land. Nelson declared the day to be an inflection point in U.S. history — a moment where a consensus began to emerge that America had to be a much better steward of the environment. Fifty-one years later, Thursday’s marking of Earth Day needs to be a new inflection point — which is why The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board is going to heed Scientific American and stop referring to what is happening as climate change. As the magazine’s website noted on April 12, “The planet is heating up way too fast. It’s time for journalism to recognize that the climate emergency is here.” As Gavin Newsom said Wednesday while standing in an empty, cracked Lake Mendocino, dry, fire-ravaged California is a prime example of the catastrophe the world faces because of this emergency.