Houston Democrats

The roots of Earth Day began in 1962. Nelson was troubled by the state of our environment and the fact that it was a "non-issue" in politics. In November 1962 in order to bring attention to the environment, he met with President Kennedy. He managed to persuade the President to embark on a five-day, eleven-state national conservation tour in September 1963. While the trip did not prove to be entirely successful in placing the environment on the political agenda, it was the beginning. Nelson continued to promote discussion on environmental issues around the country, but he found the politicians were disinterested in the environment even though the people were concerned.

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?

He believed by focusing on the public’s environmental concerns and introducing the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, the result would be a demonstration that would force the environment onto the political agenda.

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...."

What is perhaps most notable is:

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.

Some of Nelson’s achievements include:
Preserving the 2,000-mile Appalachian Trail
Mandate fuel efficiency standards in automobiles
Control of strip mining
Banning the use of DDT
Banning the use of 245T (agent orange)
Created the St. Croix Wild and Scenic Riverway and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
Co-sponsored the National Environmental Education Act

In addition, Nelson co-sponsored the National Environmental Education Act and composed the legislation establishing the Upper Great Lakes Regional Commission and Operation Mainstream/Green Thumb that employs the elderly in conservation projects.

Beginning with his rise to the Counsellorship of The Wilderness Society, he spent 14 years promoting the protection of our national forests and parks, and other public lands. More recently, he has focused US population issues and sustainability and still remains proactive in Earth Day activities, serving as Chairman of Earth Day XXV in 1995. Nelson also founded the Earth Day Network’s Earth Day 2000 Clean Energy Now! campaign. Nelson lives in Kensington, Maryland with his wife.

Senator Nelson is an excellent example of the idealism and perseverance necessary to the environmental movement, and how much can be achieved through a grass roots movement. The American Heritage Magazine (October 1993) called April 22, 1970, "one of the most remarkable happenings in the history of democracy..."

Read Nelson’s complete thoughts on the purpose of Earth Day and how it began and about Nelson at EarthDay Network.

Read democracyforcalifornia.com's post on Earth Day Every Day.

Take a short quiz about your ecological footprint on the environment and learn about ways to get involved at http://www.earthday.net/default.aspx