Earth Day's 40th Anniversary

PRESS RELEASE

Earth Day's 40th Anniversary

http://www.world-wire.com/news/1004020002.html

Celebration Hatched by Former US Senator

WASHINGTON D.C., April 2, 2010-- In 1993 American Heritage magazine
called Earth Day "one of the most remarkable happenings in the
history of democracy." Twenty million people participated. And as we
approach this anniversary (Thursday, April 22), we thought you might
want to find out exactly how Earth Day was born.

The person who hatched the idea was Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. At
the time, he was a U.S. Senator. Here's his account, from a 1998 speech:
It had been troubling to me that the critical matter of the state of
our environment was simply a non-issue politically The challenge was
to think up some dramatic event that would focus national attention
on this subject.

In 1962, I suggested that President Kennedy go on a nationwide
conservation tour, spelling out in dramatic language the
deteriorating condition of our environment, and proposing an agenda
to begin addressing the problem. The president began his tour in the
fall of 1963. Senators Hubert Humphrey, Gene McCarthy, Joe Clark, and
I accompanied him on the first leg of the trip. For many reasons,
including a breaking story on a nuclear missile treaty, the tour
failed to make the environment a national political issue.

Six years would pass before the idea for Earth Day occurred to me. It
was the summer of 1969, and I was on a conservation speaking tour out
West. [One stop was in Santa Barbara, where Nelson was stunned by the
damage done by the offshore blowout that became the largest oil spill
up to that time. It lasted 11 days and blackened beaches.

There was a great deal of turmoil on the college campuses over the
Vietnam War, and many colleges held anti-war teach-ins. On a flight
to the University of California-Berkeley, I read an article on the
teach-ins, and it suddenly occurred to me: Why not have a nationwide
teach-in on the environment? In a speech given at Seattle in
September, I formally announced that there would be a national
environmental teach-in sometime in the spring of 1970. The story ran
nationwide. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in.
Soon Nelson needed to open an office to serve as a clearinghouse for
the growing number of people who wanted to participate in the
teach-in. He hired Denis Hayes, then a graduate student at Harvard's
Kennedy School, to help coordinate the many volunteer organizers who
did the hard work of making Earth Day happen.

The Wilderness Society takes a special interest in Earth Day because
when Nelson left the Senate in 1981, he joined our staff. He was our
counselor for a quarter century, until his death in July 2005.

Three people with close links to Nelson are available to discuss
Nelson, the first Earth Day, his legacy, and current environmental challenges:
William H. Meadows is president of The Wilderness Society. Meadows
worked closely with Nelson for many years and can be contacted at
202-429-2607 or bill_meadows@tws.org.
Tia Nelson, Gaylord Nelson's daughter, carries on the family
"business" of environmentalism as executive secretary of the
Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands. She can be
contacted at 608-266-8369 or tia.nelson@wisconsin.gov.
Bill Christofferson is the author of The Man From Clear Lake: Earth
Day Founder Senator Gaylord Nelson, a political biography published
by the University of Wisconsin Press. He can be reached at
414-486-9651 or xofferson@wi.rr.com.
The best source of historical information on Earth Day is a Web site
created recently by the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at
the University of Wisconsin: www.nelsonearthday.net. It features a
number of Earth Day documents, videos, and other items drawn from the
Gaylord Nelson collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society, which
cosponsored the site. You may also want to contact Penn State
Professor Adam Rome, who is completing a book on the history of Earth
Day: axr26@psu.edu.

On Sunday, April 25th, Earth Day Network and partner organizations
will host a massive climate rally on the National Mall to call on
Congress to enact climate and clean energy legislation this year.

For more information on events around the country, consult Earth Day
Network's calendar:
http://www.earthday.org/events/be-heard-climate-rally-%E2%80%93-national-mall-%E2%80%93-april-25th-2010

To learn more about The Wilderness Society's Celebration of the 40th
Earth Day, visit: http://wilderness.org/content/earth-day-40

The Wilderness Society is the leading public-lands conservation
organization working to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to
care about our wild places. Founded in 1935, and now with more than
500,000 members and supporters, TWS has led the effort to permanently
protect 110 million acres in 44 states. www.wilderness.org

Contact: Ben Beach, (202) 429-2655, ben_beach@tws.org

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