FIFTH SEASON MAGAZINE/2009 SPECIAL ISSUE:
ANTICIPATION
EARTH DAY 40thAnniversary 1970-2010
OVERVIEW


"How the First Earth Day Came About?"

By Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day

"What was the purpose of Earth Day? How did it start? These are the questions I am most frequently asked.

Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political "limelight" once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour. I flew to Washington to discuss the proposal with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who liked the idea. So did the President. The President began his five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.

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.

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?

I was satisfied that if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but worth a try.

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...."

It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grassroots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U.S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. In mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D.C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities.

RELATED LINKS:

ECOART  CALENDAR
Earth Day 2021/Ecological Art 1996 - 2021 Online Exhibitions
Earth Day 2020 - 50th Anniversary Celebration/Earth as a Planet ecoartstamp
Earth Day_Ecological Artworld
Earth Day 2019 Spring ecoartstamp
Earthrise 1968 Apollo 8 ecoartstamp 2018 Ecoartpedia
3-ECOSPHERE Ecological Art Perspective
Indepth 3-Ecosphere Perspective/Ecological art REVIEW/WINTER 2019 Issue
Earth Day 2017 "Earth as a Planet"
PORTRAIT EARTH and Ecological Art
ECOARTPEDIA 2010 Edition: Earth Day (1970-2010)
BEGINNINGS/July 20-LANDING ON MOON 1969-2009/April 22-EARTH DAY 40th anniversary (1970-2010)
EARTH  DAY 1970-2010 EXHIBITION/PUBLIC ART/G2PA
Earth Day 2013 "PORTRAIT EARTH" ECOARTPEDIA Special Edition
Hain Wilderness National Park 2013/ECOSNEWS 2013 UPDATE
Earth Day 2012/Year of the Arctic Bear
Earth Day 2011-YEAR OF FORESTS
Earth Day 2010 40th Anniversary/"Big Sur Condor"-G2PA Image
Earth Day 2009 "Solar Crystals"/APRIL 2009/ Video-art Haiku
Earth Day 2009 Video-art  Haiku "Solar Crystals" ranked No1
Earth Day 2008-MARCH 2008 Issue
AUTUMN 2008 Issue: "Unwinding" Video-art Haiku
Earth Day 2007 "Boulders Nest" Video haiku
Earth Day 2007  video-art haiku  "Boulders Nest"
EARTH DAY 2006 Adam Straus
Barbara Roux/Earth Day 2005
Video-Art Haiku
Ecological Art TV
BOOK HUGGERS SELECTIONS
Nohra Corredor/Combined Art Exhibitions
ECOARTNET/ BEST OF THE WEB NOMINEE  Museums and the Web Awards 2006
ECOARTPEDIA Digital Ecological Art Library