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Senator
Gaylord
Nelson (1916-2005)
(Founder of Earth Day)
 (Sources
– Excerpts
from
David J. Webber's article
with
supplements
and photos
from
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
and
The
Wilderness Society)
Gaylord Nelson was born on June 4, 1916 in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, United
States. He graduated from Clear Lake High School in 1934 where he played
football and basketball. He attended San Jose State College in California
and graduated in 1939. He studied at the University of Wisconsin Law
School where he graduated in 1942. Nelson served four years in the U.S.
Army, seeing action in the Okinawa campaign, before starting a law and
political career
Interest in the Environment
Gaylord
Nelson's interest in the environment started as a boy. At age 14 he
organized campaign to plant trees along the five roads leading into
his home town, Clear Lake, Wisconsin.
He ran
for the state Senate as a Democrat in 1948 and won. He served for ten
years before being elected Governor in 1958. In the late 1950s, a crucial
issue facing Wisconsin was the great demand for outdoor recreation. A 1959
study found that over 25 percent of Chicago residents took an over-night
vacation trip to Wisconsin. Governor Nelson proposed a bold plan to
expand the state's conservation efforts. In August 1961, Nelson won
legislative approval of the Outdoor Resources Action Program financed by a
one-cent-per-pack cigarette tax to fund the state acquisition of parks and
wetlands. This 10-year program used "conservation easements" to
purchase land rights to private property. Instead of actually buying
the land, a conservation easements pays the property owner to preserve
land as wilderness. The Outdoor Resources Action Program provided for
recreation areas throughout the state for use as wildlife areas and public
parks.
While
governor, Nelson, also, proposed other environmental measure such as
regulating detergents that were making their way to Wisconsin's rivers
and streams.
In 1962,
Governor Nelson defeated Senator Alexander Wiley, a Republican who had
served 24 years, and Senator Nelson began an 18 year career in Congress.
He gained an appointment to the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs
Committee allowing him to pursue his natural resources interests. On
March 25,
1963, Nelson made his first speech before the
U.S. Senate in support of a bill to ban detergents from water
supplies.
After describing the magnitude of the detergent pollution problem, some
3.8 billion pounds used each year resulting in serious foaming of rivers
and lakes, Nelson commented on government's efforts to preserve the
environment. "We need a comprehensive and nationwide program to save the
national resources of America," he said. "We cannot be blind to the
growing crisis of our environment. Our soil, our water, and our air are
becoming more polluted every day. Our most priceless natural
resources--trees, lakes, rivers, wildlife habitats, scenic landscapes--are
being destroyed."
Nelson
aligned himself with liberal Democrats supporting the Great Society
legislation of the Johnson Administration. He took a special interest in
education programs, highway safety, and health care and was one of the
first Senators to oppose the Vietnam War.
In 1965, Nelson introduced the first legislation to
ban DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane), a chemical used to kill
insects but which threatened many other species.
DDT remains in the environment for a long time, building up in the
ecosystem. From water runoff or from eating insects, some fish and birds
accumulated dangerous amounts of DDT that caused abnormalities in
offspring. DDT became a threat to human health as it were passed up the
foodchain.
On
January 19, 1970,
Senator Nelson delivered a major speech in the Senate presenting his
"environmental agenda," consisting of 11 items many of which he
accomplished during his career. The first item was his proposal for a
constitutional amendment that read: "Every person has the inalienable
right to a decent environment. The
United States
and every State shall guarantee this right." Next, he proposed that
immediate action "to rid
America
in the 1970s of the massive pollution from five of the most heavily used
product of our affluent age." These five are: internal combustion engine,
hard pesticides, detergent pollution, aircraft pollution, and
nonreturnable containers.
The
third item on his agenda was to enhance the quality of life by
establishing family planning. Fourth, creating a new environmental
advocacy agency to involve citizens in environmental policy activities.
Fifth, reduce ocean pollution by regulating oil drilling. Sixth, establish
an environmental education program for all levels of education. Seventh,
the development of mass transit to reduce the use of private automobiles.
Eight, adoption of a national land use policy involving all levels of
government to reduce the chaotic, unplanned combination of urban sprawl,
industrial expansion, and air, water, land, and visual pollution. Ninth,
establishment of a national minerals and resources policy that encourages
wise use and conservation. Tenth, establishment of national air and water
quality policies. Eleventh, creation of a nonpartisan national
environmental political action organization which encourages public
involvement at all levels of government. Over the next decade, Senator
Nelson by working with other members of Congress made progress on many of
these items on his environmental agenda.
The Earth Day
Gaylord
Nelson started the Earth Day which is now being celebrated worldwide on
April 22 of each year. He organized the first Earth Day held on April 22,
1970, originally as a national event to learn about ecology and what we can
do to reduce environmental harm. The Earth Day as since become a worldwide
event.
Senator
Nelson realized he needed a mechanism for promoting environmental concern
and asked himself "how are we going to get the nation to wake up and pay
attention to the most important challenge the human specifies faces on the
planet?" While reading an article on anti-Vietnam War teach-ins that were
organized on college campuses across the nation to protest that War, the
thought occurred to him: Why not have a nationwide teach-in on the
environment? Upon returning to Washington, Nelson raised the funds to get
Earth Day started. He wrote letters to all 50 governors and the mayors of
major cities asking them to issue Earth Day Proclamations. He sent an
Earth Day article to all college newspapers explaining the event and one
to Scholastic Magazine, which went to most high schools and grade schools.
An
estimated twenty million people participated in educational activities and
community events demonstrating their interest in the environment. Congress
recessed for the day so that House and Senate members could speak about
the environment and attend community events. In New York city, Mayor John
Lindsay closed
Fifth Avenue
to automobile traffic and 100,000 people attended an ecology fair in
Central Park.
In Earth
Day ceremonies at the University of Wisconsin, Senator Nelson declared:
Our goal is an environment of decency, quality, and mutual respect for all
other human creatures and for all living creatures. . .The battle to
restore a proper relationship between man and his environment, between man
and other living creatures will require a long, sustained, political,
moral, ethical, and financial commitment- -far beyond any effort made
before."
Across
the nation, ten thousand grade schools and high schools, two thousand
colleages, and one thousand communities were involved in Earth Day
activities. It was a massive grass roots event where schools and
communities organized themselves once they heard the idea. Earth Day was a
success. American Heritage Magazine described Earth Day as "one of the
most remarkable happenings in the history of democracy" and said "American
politics and public policy would never be the same again."
In
addition to initiating Earth Day, Senator Nelson has promoted public
interest in the environment by publishing two books devoted to expressing
concerns about environmental damage. In American's Last Chance, he reviews
the harm to land, water, and air that humans are causing. Senator Nelson
proposed an agenda for environmental legislation which resulted in new
laws to protect the environment. The second book, What are Me and You
Gonna Do? is a collection of children's letters to Senator Nelson about
the environment." Nelson summarizes the book: "These young people are
asking why their elders have taken such a beautiful world and are spoiling
if for their children and grandchildren. They are asking why we don't stop
the destruction." The Senator asks: "Well, why don't we?"
Nelson
is still active in promoting Earth Day and is a counsellor to The
Wilderness Society, an organization in
Washington,
D.C. devoted to protecting the environment. In 1995, Senator Nelson was
awarded the Medal of Freedom in recognition of a lifetime of public
service.
Counsellor to the Wilderness Society
After
leaving the Senate, in 1981, Nelson became counselor to The Wilderness
Society, an organization in
Washington,
D.C. devoted to protecting the environment. In 1995, at the age of 79, he
gave 34 speeches in 3 months promoting the 25th Anniversary of Earth Day.
The theme of each speech was the same: Forging and maintaining a
sustainable society is THE CHALLENGE for this and all generations to come.
Nelson
twice received awards from the United Nations--in 1982, he received their
Environmental Leadership Award and in 1992, he received the "Only One
Earth" award. Additionally, he was honoured by his native state in their
establishing a Gaylord Nelson State Park in Madison, Wisconsin and by his
home town with the the Gaylord Nelson room in the town museum in Clear
Lake, a small town a long way from Washington, DC.
In
September 1995, Senator Nelson was award the Medal of Freedom--our
nation's highest civilian honor. In making the award, President Bill
Clinton said: As the father of Earth Day, he is the grandfather of all
that grew out of that event--the Environmental Protection Act, the Clean
Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act. He also set a standard for people in
public service to care about the environment and to try to do something
about it. And I think that the Vice President would want me to say that
young people like Al Gore, back in 1970, realized, because of Gaylord
Nelson, that if they got into public service, they could do
something to preserve our environment for future
generations.
In
the 1970s, when a river was so polluted it actually caught on fire,
Gaylord Nelson spoke up. He insisted that Americans deserved the safety
that comes from knowing the world we live in does not make us sick. He
warned that our leaders should not let partisan politics divert us from
responsibility to our shared environment. He inspired us to remember that
the stewardship of our natural resources is the stewardship of the
American Dream. He is the worthy heir of the tradition of Theodore
Roosevelt and the Vice President's work and that of all other
environmentalist today is the worthy heir of Gaylord N elson.
Death
Senator
Gaylord Nelson died due to cardiovascular failure, on July 3, 2005,
at the age of 89.
Books by Gaylord Nelson
America's Last Chance.
1970 What are me and you gonna do? Children's letters to Senator Gaylord
Nelson about the Environment.
Further Reading About
Gaylord Nelson
Gaylord Nelson: A Day for
the Earth, by Jeffrey Shulman and Teresa Rogers, Twenty-First Century
Books. 1992
Main Sources:
David J. Webber, MU Political Science, Jan. 1996
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
The
Wilderness Society |
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