Content area
Full Text
Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day, former Wisconsin governor and U.S. senator, spoke with NR&E shortly before the 25th anniversary of Earth Day (NR&E Summer 1995). In honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we are pleased to share that interview.
Nelson served 10 years in the Wisconsin Senate, was twice elected governor, and in 1963 began an 18-year career in the U.S. Senate. As a U.S. senator, he was the first to introduce bills to ban the use of DDT, mandate fuel efficiency standards in cars, control stripmining, and prohibit use of agent orange.
As governor of Wisconsin, he won approval of a penny-a-pack cigarette tax earmarked for the purchase of wildlife habitat, parks, and wetlands. A near landmark in his own right, having forged new ideas and laws for the environment, natural resources, and energy,
After working in government, Sen. Nelson was a counselor of The Wilderness Society and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995from President Bill Clinton.
His legacy endures, with his namesake bestowed on University of Wisconsin-Madisons Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies (or Nelson Institute), the Gaylord Nelson Wilderness in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, a park he helped create, and the Governor Nelson State Park near Waunakee, Wisconsin.
This interview has been reprinted to honor Sen. Nelson and to say: "Sometimes you need to look back to see what's needed going forward."
NR&E: Many NR&E readers may not know you are the founder of Earth Day. How and when did the proverbial light bulb for Earth Day come to you?
NELSON: For many years it concerned me that the political establishment was not paying serious attention to the most important responsibility that our species has on the planet-that is, the responsibility to protect the integrity of the life-sustaining ecosystem. That is to say, the ecosystem that sustains all life.
We have demonstrated the capacity, as no other creature has, to significantly degrade the ecosystems that sustain all life. We have been doing it quite rapidly with impacts that are both nationwide and worldwide. I wanted to get the environment onto the national agenda of priorities so that we would begin seriously to address it. One day it occurred to me, if I could persuade President Kennedy...