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Volume CXXXII, Number 21 |
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Pioneer of the environment, Senator Gaylord Nelson
JONATHAN PEREZ
STAFF WRITER
Celebrated each year as a national holiday on April 22, Earth Day commemorates the unique relation we hold to our natural world, and our consequent responsibility as stewards of a healthier environment. Founded in 1970 by the Democratic Senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day has been called "one of the most remarkable happenings in the history of democracy" by American Heritage Magazine.
Born in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, Mr. Nelson grew up in a community of around 700 people, where outdoor recreation and logging rights were both issues of extreme importance. His political agenda was evident from the start as it is told that when he was 14 he organized a campaign to plant trees beside the roads leading into his hometown.
After receiving his B.A. from San Jose State College in California in 1939, Nelson studied at the University of Wisconsin Law School, joining the U.S. Army soon after to fight in the Okinawa campaign. After serving in the State Senate as a Democrat for ten years from 1948-58, Nelson was elected to Governor where he faced crucial issues surrounding a general state demand for outdoor recreation. In August of '61, Nelson passed the Outdoor Resources Action Program to buy land rights from private property for state acquisition of parks and wetlands.
His subsequent career after being elected to the US Senate in 1962, found Nelson accomplishing such environmental legislation as: the preservation of our current 2,000 mile Appalachian trail, creating mandates for fuel efficiency standards in automobiles, passing acts that controlled strip mining in the state as well as creating a ban in the use of DDT as well as other lethal agents, and finally helping to create both Wisconsin's St. Croix Wild and Scenic Riverway and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
In his own words, Nelson says, "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."
In a political feat that still stands unrivaled in the world of environmental awareness, Senator Nelson came up with the idea of Earth Day around the same time as many of the so-called "teach-in" protests that occurred during the Vietnam era. His idea for a grass-roots protest against the multitude of injustices happening to the environment, came at the time when the country was largely active in anti-War Demonstrations. Here he describes this moment of revelation in an article published by the Wilderness Society in 2000:
"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. . .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."
As Bowdoin celebrates Earthweek next week starting Monday April 21 with a presentation by Frank Gohlke entitled "Landscape, Life, Photography, and other Riddles" through Friday April 25 in a Common Hour Lecture by George Bandy entitled "The Sustainable Campus: The Next Educational Revolution," I would draw our attention to the many parallels between today and the times of former Senator Nelson.
A statement recently released by the official site for International Earth Day, calls for Peace and unity among mankind, it says "all individuals and institutions have a mutual responsibility to act as Trustees of Earth, seeking the choices in ecology, economics and ethics that will eliminate pollution, poverty and violence, [and] foster peaceful progress."
A similar sentiment will be celebrated all next week through activities presented in association with Evergreens and Sustainable Bowdoin, for more information please look for fliers posted around campus or to the student digest.
Information for this article has been taken from a variety of sources including the University of Missouri Journal of Political Science, Earthday Network, and the Wilderness Society at http://earthday.wilderness.org/.
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