Earth Day

By Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day

What was the purpose of Earth Day? How did it start? These are the questions I am most frequently asked.

Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political "limelight" once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour. I flew to Washington to discuss the proposal with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who liked the idea. So did the President. The President began his five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.

I continued to speak on environmental issues to a variety of audiences in some twenty-five states. All across the country, evidence of environmental degradation was appearing everywhere, and everyone noticed except the political establishment. The environmental issue simply was not to be found on the nation's political agenda. The people were concerned, but the politicians were not.

After President Kennedy's tour, I still hoped for some idea that would thrust the environment into the political mainstream. Six years would pass before the idea that became Earth Day occurred to me while on a conservation speaking tour out West in the summer of 1969. At the time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, called "teach-ins," had spread to college campuses all across the nation. Suddenly, the idea occurred to me - why not organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment?

I was satisfied that if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but worth a try.

At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air - and they did so with spectacular exuberance. For the next four months, two members of my Senate staff, Linda Billings and John Heritage, managed Earth Day affairs out of my Senate office.

Five months before Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the astonishing proliferation of environmental events:

"Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam...a national day of observance of environmental problems...is being planned for next spring...when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in'...coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned...."

It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grassroots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U.S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. In mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D.C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities.

Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Earth
• Day
• EarthDay
• Eco-activism
• Environmentalists

[damienlenny]

~

el problema gracias hola burrito tortia uno dos treis quatro wat deyfuk ami sayin???

[ScubaDubaDive]

I don't have a clue? You do know a few words in Spanish... and how to count to 4!

[TexarkanaBraveheart]

i KNOW IM GONNA get flack for this,but Earth Day really means nothing.we are nothing more than parasites ,on the earth,the earth could shake us off like a surface nuisance,we think we are threat top the earth, ask the hurricane katrina survivors,how big a threat we are

[ScubaDubaDive]

Earth Day wont mean anything unless we choose to ensure that it does mean something everday of the year! You are correct that we have behaved like parasites... but that can change and we can begin to heal the damage that has been done. Like the survivors of Katrina, we now have a choose, are we going to keep putting ourselves in harms way, hoping that the day wont come again, or are we going to change because we know that day will come again? I am just happy knowing this got u thinking... :-)

[jessicolesey11129]

we could help if we have the brains to make the difference we are the new generation of heroes we can save this world!

[yamile42]

todos los dias en los 365 dias del año de nuestras vidas debemos celebrar el dia de la tierra

[LeChuck99]

The Planet survived a collision with a meteor from space. It'll survive a few plastic bags and car fumes

[FREDFREDBURGER30197]

protecting the Earth is a good thing but i dont believe in global warming

[failurbanik]

@jessicolesey11129 how do i say this

save it form what

[joe7289786]

Damn hippies... FUCK YOU ALL

[discoverytime1]

The earth day founder is not this guy. The founder was Ira Einhorn. Read the book The Unicorns Secret.

He killed his girlfriend Holly Maddux and kept her decomposing body in his house for seven years!

I guess he was the original preservationist too. He fled to france but finally came back to the states and was convicted of murder.

[Teeweewee]

His names gaylord

[twosulcata]

Remember Einhorn, the Earth Day founder murdered his girlfriend and then composted her. He practiced what he preached...idiots.

[arwenSOADL]

De acuerdo ^^ este es un compromiso de todos los días!!!!

[verypleased]

wierd how i find this exactly 3 yrs later eh......did everfyone forget??? not trying to be funny or rude in anyway.....your all watching the wrong news broadcasts....we are in big shit people....Earthday!!! dont make me laugh....it should be prayday or prepareday, your beng lied to people seriously....try David Icke, Jessie Ventura, dutchsinse for instance...or just take the blue pill and stay in wonderland...peace people!!!

[mastermajid]

what a load of shit