Environmental and Energy Business Resources

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 Nelson.

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.

Main Sources of information on Gaylord Nelson

• Gaylord Nelson: A Day for the Earth, by Jeffrey Shulman and Teresa Rogers, Twenty-First Century Books. 1992
• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress