If Trees Could Talk

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Character
   Gaylord A. Nelson
1916-2005
     
Brief personal history   Born in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, Nelson graduated from San Diego State College and Wisconsin Law School.  He rose through Wisconsin state politics to become governor in 1959.  His environmental activism dates at least as far back as his governorship, when he imposed a tax on cigarettes that was used to buy wetlands and park lands for the state.  He served as senator from 1963 until his defeat at the hands of national conservative organizations in 1980.  He continued to live in the Washington D.C. area after his senate term ended and in 1981 he became a counselor for The Wilderness Society. His continuous work for environmental causes led him to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in September 1995 in recognition of his environmental work. Nelson died on July 3, 2005 at the age 89. 

In 1963, Nelson wrote President Kennedy:  Though the public is dimly aware that all around them, here and there, outdoor assets are disappearing, they really don't see the awful dimension of the catastrophe.  The real failure has been in political leadership...But strangely, politicians don't talk about it.  Nelson got Congress to embrace the issue of the "environment" working for curbs against industrial pollution of the Great Lakes, introducing legislation to ban DDT, and to force industry to restore stripe mined land.  

     
Essence of Environmental Opinion/Activity:   In a speech to the Senate in 1970, he charged that the environmental crisis was threatening constitutional rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
     
Publications/Accomplishments

  Conceived of  and promoted the celebration of Earth Day in 1970.
     
Spirit of the Times   Atomic testing, cold war, Vietnam, dead songbirds, burning rivers, oil spills, toxic fogs.  
     
Technological revolutions   Petro-chemical revolution--plastics, biocides, solvents.
     
Condition of the air, water, soil and biodiversity   Contamination of air, water and soil by chemical pollution. Individuals in each species suffering.