>> Narrator: He was a small town boy with ideas as big as the world.
His passion for our planet lead to a lifetime
of public service, the foundation and fabric
of our nation's environmental protections,
and the largest demonstration in the history of democracy,
a demonstration for every man, woman, child
and living creature.
>> It was in 1962 that Senator Gaylord Nelson
approached my father about persuading President Kennedy
to make a conservation tour of the United States
to alert Americans to the deteriorating condition
of their air, and water, and lakes, and rivers,
and public lands.
It was the first such tour by any American president.
And it was the spark that finally grew into
the conflagration of Earth Day eight years later.
On Earth Day, 1970, as a result of the leadership
of Senator Gaylord Nelson, 20 million Americans
came out onto the street in the largest public demonstration
in United States history to demand of our political
leaders that they return to the American people
the ancient environmental rights that had been stolen
from our citizens over the previous 80 years.
And as a result of this extraordinary demonstration
of public concern, republicans and democrats got together.
And over the next ten years, we passed 28 major environmental
laws that protect our air, and our water,
and our endangered species, and wetlands,
and food safety, et cetera.
>> There is a great need in this country
for quality leadership. There's a great need
for quality leadership in both our political parties.
Gaylord Nelson has this leadership.
He has the intellect. He has the integrity.
And he has the courage that this country needs.
>> He was thinking decades beyond other people.
When we talk about the great environmentalists,
Teddy Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold,
you certainly have to say that Gaylord Nelson is among
the two or three visionaries in the environment.
>> Gaylord Nelson: Anybody who just comes out and looks
would say, "My, what a marvelous, wonderful thing."
All of these things involving the status of our environment,
protecting them is a good investment from the standpoint
of the quality of living, and as an economic investment.
Forging and maintaining a sustainable society is
the critical challenge for this, and all future generations to come.
We are not just toying with nature.
We are compromising the capacity of natural systems
to do what they need to do to preserve a livable world.
The great tragedy of the country is that we are rapidly
degrading and destroying our resources of all kinds.
We are talking about overpopulation, air pollution,
water pollution, depletion of fisheries,
and much, much more.
We are all pursuing a self-destructive course.
We can, we must, and we will forge a sustainable society.
But, it will take better leaders and better followers
than what is available right now.
>> He may walk a little slower or move a little slower
because of his advancing age, but it has not slowed down
his sense of purpose or his commitment
to the cause for which he works. And he gets up every morning,
determined to go to work and do what he can
to make difference to advance that cause
and to speak to the issues of sustainability,
to continue his dedication to the environment.
>> The founder of Earth Day, savior of the Appalachian Trail,
protector of the Apostle Islands...
>> Narrator: Bill Christofferson is the author
of The Man from Clear Lake, the recently
published biography of Gaylord Nelson.
>> Mr. Environment, Gaylord Nelson.
(applause)
>> The inspiration for Earth Day,
Gaylord was on a speaking tour in California.
He had just visited the site of a terrible oil spill
near Santa Barbara, and he was reading a magazine,
about teach-ins that were going on college campuses
about the Vietnam War. (explosions and gunfire)
>> Colonel, at college teach-ins in the United States,
they've been debating whether the Americans should be
helping the Vietnamese at all. What would happen...
(loud gunfire and airplanes flying overhead)
>> Nelson: Teach-ins on the campuses,
teach-ins on the Vietnam war. I thought that's a good idea,
why can't we have a nationwide teach-in on the environment?
That's where the concept of Earth Day came from.
>> The first Earth Day was a very exciting time,
because many of us were concerned about the environment.
>> And on our 20-minute lunch breaks, I'd sit on the back
porch and I'd see these giant pipes with this garbage
flowing out of it.
If you live in American city You will find it
Very pretty Just two things of which
You must beware Don't drink the water
And don't breath the air Pollution, pollution...
>> You saw the dead fish, you saw the black smoke
pouring out of smoke stacks. I had my students at Parkside,
where I was teaching, go out and collect samples
of green, yellow guck coming out of the pipes
of polluting factories. They're drinking the water
And breathing the air...
>> We needed to take our love for the environment,
our concern about conservation into the political arena
so we could get good laws passed.
And the first Earth Day was so exciting because
millions of people all across the country, high schools,
colleges, universities, stopped for one day
and we had a teach-in.
>> It didn't have the name of "Earth Day" at the time.
He called it an environmental teach-in.
He said he was going to have it in the spring.
>> As you know, the first Earth Day was on April 22, 1970.
>> Well, what should happen?
I announced it's going to be on April 22.
And all of a sudden, the John Birch Society
and all kinds of right wing organizations
made an all out assault because this was Nelson's
disguised way of honoring Lenin's birthday.
I didn't know that it was Lenin's birthday.
Of course, if you think about it, and you've got
a few billion people around, several people have got to be
born on every day of the year.
>> And he says, you know, April 22, I guess was Lenin's.
But it was also St. Francis of Assisi,
who you could say was the first environmentalist.
He named a couple more, Queen Isabella
and his Aunt Tilly.
>> These right wing groups seriously thought that
that was a disguised method of honoring Lenin.
And I think old Vice President Agnew felt the same.
I couldn't get them to endorse an Earth Day.
Well, it was a very peaceful and dramatic demonstration
with millions and millions of people.
>> This was really a kind of a day of celebration.
It was a day of demonstrations. It was a day of symposiums,
and gatherings and events all across the country.
And the fact that a United States Senator
would take the lead on this and would marshal support
in the universities, the churches,
the environmental groups, the farm groups,
I think undoubtedly reached people that heretofore
weren't aware of the environmental movement.
>> Gaylord always says, you know, no one organized
Earth Day, how could you organize
20 million people, and all that.
But the organization, you know, really came locally,
and that was kind of the key to this long-term success.
>> Early 1970, right after winter break.
I was an undergraduate student at the University of New Mexico.
And I got a call from Washington from one of the undergraduates
who was organizing it.
And they were looking for students who had
good organizing skills to help them put together
this concept of Earth Day.
I thought it was a great idea. He said this senator from
Wisconsin named Gaylord Nelson had come up with the idea.
And that he wanted students to actually make it happen.
So, two weeks later, I was on a plane to Washington.
>> I think that the success can really go back to
the enthusiasm, the sincerity and the drive that Gaylord had
to make it a success.
He lived it and he worked at it.
>> Well, starting the night before,
I had a schedule taking me across the United States.
>> The airplane has landed, and our first speaker is here.
So, I would like to introduce Wisconsin's Democratic Senator,
Gaylord Nelson. (applause)
>> His itinerary, he would speak at four
universities, maybe, a day. And that went on
for two or three weeks.
>> I apologize for being late.
I spoke in Atlantic City this morning.
Then I had to sit in the Philadelphia airport
after leaving Atlantic City for an hour
for the air pollution to clear up so I could fly
to Boston, Massachusetts, to give a speech.
But I think you have to start out looking at the big picture.
The big picture is, that we live on a finite planet
with a limited capacity to sustain life,
with a thin envelope of air around it.
Our goal is a decent environment in its broadest
and deepest sense, an environment without ugliness,
without discrimination, without hunger,
without poverty and without war.
>> Because if we do not save the environment and save the earth,
then whatever we do in civil rights
or in a war against poverty will be of no meaning,
because then we will have the equality of extinction.
>> The mainstream media were pretty skeptical
for the most part, whether this was
a one-shot thing.
>> Earth day has really taken off.
And it's taken off because of the persistency
of Gaylord Nelson.
It appears to be A long
Appears to be A long time...
>> It's a great honor for me to chair Earth Day 2000.
(applause)
>> I understand that Earth Day is acknowledged
in almost every country in the world.
Now, how many things can you say that about?
It's a huge achievement. And Gaylord Nelson
is the figure, political figure, who's most responsible
for the international recognition of the environment
as one of the great modern issues.
>> This is Clear Lake Wisconsin. One of those small towns
where it's so much fun to be a boy.
A return visit by the Nelson family
is a big event for the town as well as for the Nelsons.
Clear Lake has a lovely park, where it's fun for kids,
like Tia, to chase frogs.
>> It always strikes me as ironic that the founder
of Earth Day was born in a town called Clear Lake.
>> Narrator: Clear Lake, just a small town in northern Wisconsin
surrounded by forests, lakes and farms.
Maybe the ideal environment for the young years
of the future environmentalist.
>> I think that's where his love of nature started
is in his small town.
Gaylord calls Clear Lake the Athens of the North.
>> Gaylord Nelson was someone who accomplished more than
he ever could have imagined possible when he was
growing up in this little town.
>> Narrator: Born in 1916, Gaylord Nelson
was one of four children who grew up in this house.
>> From the time I was a little kid
until I went to college.
>> Narrator: His father was a country doctor, his mother a nurse.
>> The Nelsons, although they had the house full
of their own kids, it was kind of refuge
for anybody who needed help.
Gaylord's father, the doctor, had countless unpaid bills.
>> Money wasn't important to him.
He served.
And maybe he'd take a chicken, or something, if he delivered
a baby, or something.
That was instilled in Gaylord from both his father and mother,
that wasn't the most important thing in life.
Gaylord's mother was way ahead of her time.
>> She was very active in community affairs of all kinds
at a time when women still didn't have the vote
and still weren't doing much politically, she was.
She was active in the Progressive Party.
>> Narrator: In the early 1900s, Wisconsin was a stronghold
of the Progressive Party, defined largely by
"Fighting Bob" LaFollette, his son, Young Bob,
and other LaFollettes.
>> My mother was the only woman member
of the executive committee of the
Progressive Party in the 1930s.
Women weren't active, as they are now.
And the LaFollettes always used to correspond or call my father.
So, I went to political meetings
with my father and my mother from the time
I was in grade school. Whenever a speaker came
within driving distance, in our Model T Ford,
away we went, 40-50-60 miles, sometimes,
just to hear somebody, hear one of the LaFollettes give a speech.
>> This was the old elementary school.
And of course, Gaylord Nelson went to school here.
We all did.
This would've been one of his classrooms.
It's now the Gaylord Nelson room, our former Governor
and United States Senator and father of Earth Day.
And of course, naturally, Clear Lake's very proud of him.
And Gaylord, I don't think he's ever missed a year
that he hasn't been back in Clear Lake for a week or so
in the summer time.
>> Great. >> Thank you.
>> I think it's really neat that you come back and see us.
>> Every year.
>> It's cool that he founded Earth Day, and
stuff like that, and he's from our town.
>> Hi. >> Hi.
>> You better play the trumpet for me.
I used to play it in this band.
>> Teacher: Several years ago. >> Half a century.
(all laugh) (band plays)
>> I think it's very important for Gaylord to return here,
as he does every year.
I think he's still a small town boy.
(general conversations in caf\)
>> Gary.
>> He lives up in Clarence Sandburg's home.
>> How are you? >> His father was a doctor.
And he came out and delivered me first
and came home and delivered Gaylord.
>> We were in the same class since grade school.
>> Your dad delivered me and after he gave the price
to my dad, later he told my dad, he said, "Ah, you don't
owe me nothing." It was hard times then.
>> Narrator: Growing up in Clear Lake may have been ideal,
but Gaylord Nelson's ambitions would take him far beyond
the rural north woods of Wisconsin.
>> When I was in grade school and high school,
I dreamed of being a governor or a U.S.
Senator, just dreamed about it.
>> He became a confidant of important politicians and presidents.
He traveled the world. He made thousands of speeches.
He got legislation passed.
He mobilized millions of people on Earth Day.
He did all of these things, but it never really changed
who he was or what he was all about.
He was always kind of this small town boy from Clear Lake
off on an adventure with kind of this
"gee-whiz" attitude about him.
>> Narrator: His adventure took him through college
in California, law school
in Madison, Wisconsin, and the U.S. Army in World War II.
Lieutenant Nelson was assigned to lead a company
of black soldiers in the still-segregated army.
He would later push for legislation to integrate
the Wisconsin National Guard.
After serving three years stateside, his company was sent
to the Pacific Theater just before the
atomic bombs and Japan's surrender.
>> Of course, probably the most important event of the army
was that I met my wife, Carrie Lee.
She'd just gotten out of nursing school and went into the army.
And then I shipped off to Okinawa.
And she ultimately landed on Okinawa also,
where we met again, for the second time.
And then, we got married in the year 1947.
>> There's a really nifty quote of hers in Tom Brokaw's book,
fromThe Greatest Generation, and he opens each chapter with a quote.
I think it's interesting that Brokaw chose to use
a quote from my mother, not my not my father.
He recognized what an important,
though not always visible role, my mother played in making
it possible for my father to be as successful as he was.
>> Narrator: After the war, Nelson practiced law
in Madison, Wisconsin, then entered state politics
as a democrat and served 10 years in the Wisconsin Senate.
>> Senator Nelson, is it possible to sum up your charges
against the present state administration?
>> In two words: dry rot.
>> Narrator: In 1958, he followed his childhood dream
and ran for governor. It was an uphill campaign
against two solid decades of republican administrations.
>> Good evening. Well, the battle is over.
The signs are being put away for another day.
Wisconsin has a new democratic governor.
You were actually, you might say, surprised that you won?
>> Yes, I was. I thought there was only
about one chance in four that I could win.
And I never expected to win by this margin, by any means.
(band plays "On Wisconsin")
>> You will faithfully and impartially discharge
the duties of the Office of Governor to the best
of your ability so help you God?
>> I do. >> Congratulations, sir.
>> Thank you. >> Well, he first of all,
modernized state government and created the greatest
outdoor resources protection act in the history of the state.
>> Well, Wisconsin has a very long tradition of concern
about our environment and conservation ethics.
Aldo Leopold, John Muir and of course, Gaylord Nelson.
>> His landmark legislation was the Outdoor Recreation Act
Program, which set aside money from a one-cent cigarette tax
in order to purchase key park land
and wetlands areas, a million acres all over the state.
It was the single biggest environmental action ever taken
by anybody in the United States.
>> He proposed this, and took it around the state
and held meetings and public hearings
and explained the program. And there really was kind of
something for everybody, which made it more difficult
for legislators to oppose it.
But the original concept was Gaylord's.
It was one of the things that, at the time, Wisconsin
was kind of setting a standard for the country on how to do that.
It became a model for other states who
did similar things across the U.S.
>> So, he was able to deal with the practical politics
of what it took to put it in place.
But it was his vision that put in place a program
that has lasted for decades, continues to this day
to be at the very center of what we do
in environmental protection in Wisconsin.
>> It's what really made him the conservation governor.
It kind of stamped him with that issue permanently in people's minds.
>> Narrator: Governor Nelson's bipartisan skills
fostered political harmony that might seem impossible today.
But there was one issue that bred deep division.
>> I will never forget his courage in dealing with
somebody like Joe McCarthy. When Gaylord was governor,
his secretary Ester Kaplan circulated a petition calling
for the abolition of the House Un-American Activities Committee.
They were ruining peoples lives by smearing them,
claiming they were communist and anti-American.
And then, the republican assistant floor leader
demanded that he fire Ester. So, Gaylord
called a press conference. He said, you know, Ester Kaplan
was absolutely out of line in circulating this petition.
The least she could've done is bring it to me,
so I would've had the privilege of being the first signature on the petition.
And then I would've told her, "Go get it!"
Gaylord took on issues like that.
>> Narrator: Like Gaylord Nelson, his close friend
Martin Hanson is a conservationist and environmental activist.
Hanson observes and records the natural world close-up
at his home in the forests of northern Wisconsin.
The two have been allies for nearly half a century,
working to preserve the region's wildlife and natural resources.
>> I first heard him as governor, and he spoke
of all the values that he got living in a small town.
He feels that he had a wonderful youth, woods, lakes.
Gaylord has an understanding of the whole system.
And there are resources that are finite,
and we need to conserve. (cranes calling)
>> Narrator: Nelson served two terms as Governor of Wisconsin,
then aimed for his other childhood dream,
the U.S. Senate. Like his hero, "Fighting Bob" LaFollette,
the whistle stop was part of the campaign.
>> I'd like to say that I've always believed that
a man's personal commitment is to excellence
and is to victory. Gaylord Nelson
has this leadership. And I would support him
whether he be a republican or a democrat.
>> One of his elections, the bumper stickers said,
"Nelson Naturally." And there's not too many
politicians for which that would make sense.
>> Narrator: In 1963, with John F. Kennedy
in the White House, Gaylord Nelson took
his conservation message to Washington and onto the national stage.
>> Nelson: In our fresh, clean waters, children
and families find wholesome recreation.
Yet, we are destroying them at an incredible rate.
These scenes were taken this summer on Lake Superior.
They show industrial waste pouring into what was crystal clear water.
>> When he went to the Senate, he immediately began
to think about, what can we do to get this
to the public's attention.
>> Up here in this beautiful part of Lake Superior in Wisconsin
are the Apostle Islands.
This magnificent recreation area must be preserved.
>> His first idea was that he would get President Kennedy
to talk about the issue, to make the national tour
about the environment.
He did convince the president to make the trip.
>> I persuaded him that when he landed in Duluth
that we should take some Army helicopters and fly over
the Apostle Islands.
>> On that tour, Gaylord had me as a tour director.
And the tour took only 45 minutes to an hour
before we looked at the Islands and came over the sand beaches an cliffs.
There is no group of islands or archipelago like it,
and the better sailing areas of all the Great Lakes.
I mentioned that, I got the big Kennedy smile.
>> Now, you tell that to a Kennedy,
and John F. Kennedy, President Kennedy started looking.
And because of that, we have one of the few
national lakeshores in America is in the Apostle Islands.
It's because of Gaylord Nelson.
>> Anyone who flies over those islands as we just did
must realize how significant this occasion is.
And what we are doing here, which is concentrating
the attention of the people of the country
on this great natural resource must be duplicated
in every state of the union.
>> Senator Gaylord Nelson introduced the Apostle Islands
National Lakeshore bill and passed it through the United States Senate.
>> Nelson: But it still took until 1972, nine years,
to get that bill through both houses and signed.
>> Eventually, his position has prevailed.
And it's because he's been willing to stick with it, and persevere.
>> He came along at a very, very important time in American history
when a lot of very important events were occurring.
>> Well, Gaylord was one of the first people to speak out
publicly about the Vietnam War.
>> He felt that, as Eisenhower did, that
we shouldn't be engaged in a ground war in Southeast Asia.
>> Of course, there are those who would like to have
an all-out war, and bomb all of North Vietnam
and bomb China. And then, you could sit there
for years and years, and when you left
the insurgency would start again.
>> I am not going to emphasize any policies that
I think promise either a quick victory or a quick withdrawal.
>> Fifty thousand lives and $150 billion later,
if only we had listened to Gaylord Nelson then.
(applause)
>> Narrator: Whether because of his anti-war position
or other issues, the Nixon administration
identified Senator Nelson as one of its enemies.
In June of 1973, the secret list hit the press.
>> I was kind of proud that Wisconsin
was the only state in the union that had both senators,
Proxmire and I were on the enemies list.
>> But he was remarkable for being a strong advocate,
without ever personalizing it.
He knew that in the senate and in public life, you fight battles.
You have to come back another day.
You have to sometimes work with people who were on the other side
before to promote the programs and the values that you care about.
>> Narrator: Nelson used that ability to
capitalize on the success of Earth Day.
He went on to help pass more environmental legislation
in the decade that followed than in the history of the country,
a period now referred to as the "Environmental Decade."
>> And in a very short period of time,
almost unbelievably quickly, the U.S. Congress passed
the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act,
the Endangered Species Act, the Environmental
Protection Act, and a whole series of
legislation in the middle '70s, which basically gave us
the framework to begin to make serious progress
at protecting our environment. And we now
do have cleaner water. We have cleaner air.
>> Most of that legislation, you'll notice, was done
on a bipartisan basis. There were republican
and democratic sponsors to almost every one of those
pieces of important environmental legislation that passed during that era.
>> I think it has had a significant impact.
I think, as Senator Nelson explains in
his most recent book, Beyond Earth Day,
at least brought us to a politics or a paradigm of crisis or urgency.
That there was an urgent reason to be aware of what was
happening to our environment, whether through rivers being
on fire in the '60s and '70s, water that was
no longer drinkable, air that was not breathable.
That was very important.
>> Narrator: Nelson and the political leaders
have warned that today however, those laws and the environmental
progress that followed are being undermined.
>> We have, at the moment, the most anti-environmental
congress in my lifetime. Senator Nelson is appalled.
When I talked to him, he just can't believe
that the great laws that he worked so hard for,
Clean Air, Clean Water, Endangered Species,
are now being weakened or threatened.
They may be reversed. So, we face
a very important time, probably as important
as the late '60s. And we need
some inspirational leadership. We don't have it.
We don't have leadership in the White House.
We don't have much leadership in the U.S. Congress.
>> The environmental community needs to reassert itself.
And, you know, we're going to weaken ourselves from within
if we don't have the kind of strong environmental protection
policy that has been a hallmark of our country
ever since Gaylord Nelson.
>> So, I pretty much covered Gaylord for 18 years,
the 18 years he was in the Senate.
His office was right along there.
>> Narrator: After his Senate career ended in 1981,
Nelson didn't retreat. He didn't cloak himself
in the belief that Earth Day and the awareness it brought
closed the gap on the very serious
environmental problems facing the planet today.
Nelson continued to advocate for the environment,
joining the Wilderness Society as its counsel,
and making countless appearances across the country,
warning that the battle for protecting the country's
natural resources is far from over.
>> Most people, at some point in their career retire.
They have fought the good fight. It's time to take
their golden years and take it easy.
However, when you have someone like Gaylord
Nelson, that's simply not the case.
>> When he finished being a United States Senator,
he could have gone out and made millions of dollars as a lobbyist.
He could have done anything. And instead, he goes to work
for the Wilderness Society and continues
to fight the good fight for the environment.
>> Full-time, worked seven or eight hours a day,
traveled around the country for two decades
after his retirement from the senate.
I think that's absolutely unprecedented.
>> I think it's the most eloquent indication of what sort of a man he is.
>> He was probably 86 or 87, when he finally slowed down
after an operation, that he finally cut it back a little bit.
>> I can't sustain my voice very long, so as
Henry VIII said to Ann Bolin,
"I won't keep you long." (all laugh)
>> And when you ask him why he keeps doing it, he says,
"Well, there's still things to do, things that aren't done."
>> Narrator: Nelson's efforts have earned him
a number of honors, such as the Ansel Ansel Adams
Conservation Award, the United Nations
Only One World Award, and the nation's highest civilian award,
the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
>> There are not many United States Senators
who have ever gotten the Medal of Freedom.
>> Narrator: Nelson continues to take on some
of the most challenging, controversial issues
and to confront them head on.
>> Overpopulation. We're consuming
the resource base of the world and over-pressuring
the environment everywhere. So, sustainability
is the challenge for the human species.
>> From the very beginning, Gaylord Nelson realized
that the environmental problems were caused by several factors
coming together.
Population, more and more people.
And the population's almost doubled in
the world since the first Earth Day.
The U.S. population is growing very rapidly.
We're the fastest-growing developed country
in the world, going up at three million or more a year.
So, Gaylord Nelson understood that.
And he always talked about it.
>> We'll join China and India
as the billion people club. Everything will double.
What will be left of scenic beauty, open spaces that we cherish?
>> The population issue brings all the hot button things up.
You've got birth control, and you've got sex education,
and immigration, all these issues that
politicians are afraid to talk about.
>> Nelson: Immigration is the big
net gain that we're involved in.
>> His idea that restricting immigration is a key
to doing something about the population issue,
and how many people can this country really support
is something that a lot of people
have a hard time understanding and dealing with it.
And he's resolute about it.
>> Nelson: Crowding, overpopulation
takes away all kinds of rights.
The right to freedom from noise and freedom of elbow room.
>> Certainly at his age, it would be easy
to rest his laurels and not make any great waves
or not strike out in any new directions.
But this population question is an example of his willingness
to take criticism and to talk about things
he really believes in, even when they may not be popular.
It's not a new position for him.
>> Narrator: Intertwined with the issue
of human population growth is the loss of biological
diversity on the planet. From the smallest,
unknown life forms to some of the most common
and recognizable, scientists agree the planet
is now experiencing the sixth mass extinction
of life on Earth. The difference now,
scientists tell us, is that the current mass extinction
is caused by humanity's sheer numbers and the changes
it's wrought to the Earth's lands, waters, air, indeed, its very climate.
>> All of the countries in the world
are consuming capital, and counting it on the profit side
of the ledger. What's our capital?
Air, water, soil, forests, rivers, lakes, oceans,
wildlife habitat, biodiversity.
That's the wealth of the country.
>> Narrator: Nelson makes it clear, however, that preserving
life on Earth, in all its forms, is essential not only
to maintaining the living system upon which all life depends,
but to the nation's other sacred trust: the economy.
>> Where do the jobs come from? The jobs come from the
resource base that you have. If you destroy
the resource base, that destroys the jobs.
The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment,
not the other way around. If you showed everybody
the implications of population growth
in terms of biodiversity, a livable place,
if they all understood that then you can ask
the question, what do you want to do about it?
>> They know that whatever they do to the environment,
it affects the environment. So, if they throw plastics down
it can harm our birds. It can harm the fish, you know,
by polluting our waters and our air.
So, they're more appreciative and they can also teach
somebody else not to do that as well.
>> The environment is their house.
That's where they live. You want it to be a junk yard or do you
want to preserve the beauty and the diversity of the wildlife?
>> Narrator: Nelson also has great concern
about global warming, considering it one of the most
challenging issues with which the planet wrestles today.
>> There is no question that we've seen a global warming
of the surface temperature over the last hundred years.
One of the questions is, how much is it caused by human effects?
>> Global warming is caused by burning coal and oil,
primarily in our cars as well as old, dirty
coal fired power plants. The hotter it gets,
the more extreme our weather will be.
Heat waves, wild fires and increased storms.
>> Narrator: Nina Leopold Bradley, daughter
of naturalist Aldo Leopold, and her brother, Carl, have
been tracking global warming by watching the seasonal
comings and goings of plants and wildlife
at the old Leopold shack in central Wisconsin.
Aldo Leopold recorded his research
in widely circulated essays, such as the "Land Ethic,"
published 1949, in A Sand County Almanac.
>> Aldo Leopold, I met once. If you have the Sand
County Almanac, he would spend days on a sentence,
just one sentence or one paragraph.
>> Dad wrote: "Keeping records enhances
the pleasure of the search and the chance of
finding order and meaning in these events."
>> Narrator: Through their work today, the next generation
of Leopolds is taking up where their father left off,
creating a detailed local climate record that now spans more than 60 years.
>> We now keep track of about 320 events:
the arrival of birds, the first blooming of plants, and so forth.
A third of the items are coming two to three weeks
earlier then when dad was here in the '30s and '40s.
The sandhill cranes, in general, are coming a week to ten days
earlier then when my father was here.
When we grew up as children, we always
went ice skating on Thanksgiving Day.
Today, there was not even a crust of ice on our local ponds.
It has changed migration patterns.
It has changed behavior patterns.
It has changed flowering of plants.
>> Narrator: For more than 35 years now, Gaylord Nelson
has advocated lessening our dependence on fossil fuels,
such as oil and coal, and investing
in renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power.
>> Nelson: How long can the United States and the world
continue to consume the world's resources,
the non-renewable resources, the minerals, the oils, at the
current accelerating pace before we exhaust the world supply?
>> If we understand the science of it, perhaps then we can
do something to change the way we are treating the earth.
We know the science. We just need now
to inform the public so we can change our behavior patterns.
>> Nelson: Aldo Leopold once wrote, "The first rule
of intelligent tinkering is to save all of the pieces.
Our tinkering hasn't been very intelligent, and we aren't
saving the pieces." You can't do anything
until the public is convinced that it needs to be done.
So, I propose that the president will give an annual message
on sustainability every year after the State of the Union Address.
>> Narrator: Nelson also called for ongoing
congressional hearings at which leading scientists
would testify about some of the planet's
increasingly complex environmental problems.
But Nelson knew there would be no quick fixes.
His long-term goal: cultivating an
environmental ethic among the next generation.
It is the only way, Nelson asserted,
the United States can become a sustainable society,
one that lives within its means without exhausting the resources
that will be needed by future generations
to maintain an acceptable standard of living.
>> We need to raise a generation--
and it's coming-- that is guided by an environmental ethic.
>> And we have to start early. Children have to understand
why environmental ethic is important.
Why we should care about the land.
Why should we care about our environment.
Why should we care about lakes and rivers.
Why should we keep the air clean.
Because they're all inter-related.
>> If we intrude here, what will the consequence be?
Mud Lake came right up to this yard.
And they drained it. And it was an environmental disaster.
You're learning a lot from the prairie?
>> Children: Yes! >> We took wildlife inventory.
And that's when we asked different classes
to come out on the prairie and write down everything
that they saw, they heard and smelled.
>> Nelson: All kids love wild creatures.
And we should be giving them something that
they have an interest in... (all laugh)
>> What we have found is that if you do a study,
there's research out there on people who make
environmentally sound decisions. Those people have had consistent
contact with a piece of land throughout their life
and they've had a mentor of some sort, either a neighbor
or a parent, or a teacher who has demonstrated
respectful behavior toward the environment.
And that leads to strong environmental decision making.
>> Narrator: The Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee
is a neighborhood environmental education center
located in Wisconsin's most densely populated community.
The Center works closely with area schools to integrate nature
into the students' curriculum and is fast becoming a national model.
>> You guys all recognize these boots, right?
>> Yes. >> Many of them live
really close to the river, so it's part of their community,
so they can make a really nice direct connection to the river.
It's a way for them to get to know the environment right in their own backyard.
>> Three, four... >> I'm going to pour this.
>> A salmon jumped up by me. And I think that the more
experience we give children that live in the inner city,
the more eager they are going to want to learn
about their environment and the things around them.
>> This one's a clam. This is a crawfish.
>> Yeah, we got it. We got it!
>> This is really fun, because it's hands on.
They get to get in the water. They're studying
and we're connecting it to their curriculum
at the schools, but they actually get to do the real life
hands-on learning out in the environment.
>> Anything that we take out of the river we put it back.
>> I was going to pick it up. >> Anything.
>> Let me do it. >> The living skills that
you can gain in relationships are very important.
>> Narrator: Teaching young people about the environmental,
health and economic benefits of locally grown, organic food
is a goal of Growing Power, a non-profit Milwaukee group
that supports community-grown food.
>> It's really a natural thing for young people
to touch the soil, for all of us.
We're all connected to the soil, to Mother Earth.
So, I've had kids that have come in here that are just wired.
And once they touch the soil, something just happens to them.
It's very therapeutic. Especially for young people
that live in the central city where there's concrete.
They come here and they see soil and they see plants growing, that's a start.
>> To educate you as consumers, as to what you are eating,
so you eat organically, to eat foods with lower pesticides.
It's important to create these new growing systems.
To have a sustainable food system,
you must have food that is grown inside cities and outside of cities.
You can't just have food that is grown outside of cities
because we're losing farm land faster than we're losing
land inside cities. Without healthy, safe,
sustainable food I don't see how
we can improve our communities. Understand that this is farming.
>> Nelson: Young people, all people, have to be
exposed to the concept of sustainability.
(applause)
We have the greatest most glorious park system
of any country in the world. There's something to be said
for the opportunity and the freedom
to find a place that's quiet and remote.
Unless the public sees places like this
they don't know they exist. And they don't know
that they are threatened. Understanding the importance
of natural areas is vital to preserving our future.
>> Stockton has, some people say, the highest density
of black bears anywhere in the world.
This is former Governor Gaylord Nelson.
>> Nice to meet you.
>> I brought 27 of my students here.
>> How do you like the islands? >> Oh, they're beautiful.
>> He was the person who advocated that we should
create this place as a national park.
And then later, he became a U.S. Senator
and he made it happen. So, you're looking at the father
of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
We're all indebted to him for all of his hard work
over many years to help create this place.
>> Thank you.
>> I didn't create it. Somebody up there.
>> Well, that's true.
>> Are you cooking out here? What are you cooking?
>> Peanut butter and jelly. (all laugh)
>> Narrator: As a fitting tribute to the man
who fought so long to preserve the Apostle Islands
as a National Lakeshore, nearly all of the islands' land area
is now officially designated and protected by Congress
as the "Gaylord A. Nelson Wilderness."
>> Nelson: When the National Parks were created,
they were to be managed to preserve the natural beauty, the
wildlife, and pass them on to the next generation unimpaired.
>> And if you read the Wilderness Act,
"without the imprint of man... for the use of enjoyment
of the American people." It's a real quandry there.
How do you manage for both of those things.
And trying to protect some very wild places,
some places that really meet that intent of the Wilderness Act.
Wonderful opportunities for solitude.
>> It provides an experience for people that they
can't get anywhere else. It's put
aside because every place else
is being changed by humans.
And we're trying hard not to change those areas
so that we can have those experiences that are disappearing.
>> This area was designated as the Sawtooth National
Recreation Area in 1972. We really worked hard,
especially to try to retain that real
pristine character when you get off trail.
This view tells part of the story.
People come here, they stop and they look at those mountains
and they say, "I want to go in there."
And I don't blame them, because I do too.
>> ...the Appalachian Trail. And then it was broadened
to create the whole national trail system.
>> Narrator: Park Manager Pam Underhill believes
that if Nelson hadn't sponsored the National Trails System Act
in the U.S. Senate, national scenic trails,
such as the Appalachian Trail, wouldn't have been saved.
>> So, I know it's going to something our kids
and our grandkids, and our great grandkids
are going to be so grateful for in the years to come.
But one of the issues, I think we've come to realize, the issue is overuse.
The issue is too many people trying to enjoy a resource
like the Appalachian trail. And what that does to the
opportunities for solitude and the kind of experience
the Appalachian trail offers.
For my part, I think that there are going to be fewer
and fewer places for the low-end recreation user,
the person who just wants to walk.
>> I started in Georgia. And right now, I'm about
977 miles along the trail. It's a little shy of halfway.
I like the aspect of being able to hike
and not see other people. Unfortunately,
or, fortunately, I don't know, there's been a lot of people
on the trail, more than I would have expected.
But, it certainly is nice to get away from the sound of the highway.
>> Particularly in the eastern United States,
there are going to be fewer and fewer opportunities
for a remote outdoor recreation experience.
So, we are forever in your debt. (laughs)
>> Gaylord Nelson came along at the right time
and the right place. He has left a legacy.
The rest of us will be talking about
environmental issues for a very, very long time.
(Native American drumming and singing)
>> Well, we gather here today to honor a gentleman who had
the foresight, I guess, way back in the '60s
to start saving the water, the Namekagon
River and natural places we have.
>> I came up here as a boy scout and camped on this river.
>> I've grown up here. And I was 15 years old
when Gaylord Nelson got into the Namekagon River.
>> Right now, they're threatening to cross it
with a power line from up in Canada down through Wisconsin.
>> I will have to be 200 years old
before they put that line across the river.
(crowd cheers)
>> He gave us all an opportunity to come into the woods
where we can think about how much we love this land.
So, I want us to remember that, and I want us to thank this man
for preserving that for us. He gave
us the tools to fight the good fight.
>> And we invite everybody to always come here to these
special and sacred places, and to remember Gaylord,
remember the earth, remember that warrior within themselves.
>> Thank you! (cheers and applause)
>> I'm reminded of a wonderful line
from Melville'sMoby Dick. "How long will it take
to get to the end of the road to nowhere?"
Melville eloquently described this phenomenon
that's going on all over the country
by raising the question whether Leviathan, the whale,
can long endure so wide a chase,
whether he must at last be exterminated from the waters.
And the last whale, like the last man, smoke
his last pipe, and then himself evaporate...
into a final puff.