News Topic: Conservation History

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04/23/2010 - Waning public support for addressing climate change. Endless personal pursuit of bigger, bigger, bigger, more, more, more despite the obvious environmental costs. Backsliding on water clean-up since the halcyon days of the 70s. Species extinctions at unprecedented rates. Folks replacing scientific fact with opinion. The scarcity of politicians with the insights and convictions of Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day.

One could easily fall into depression.

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04/22/2010 - On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day, a number of gatherings occurred around Minnesota to celebrate the urgent need to restore and protect the environment. I was asked to address the student rally outside the entrance to Coffman Union, facing the magnificent mall extending to Northrup Auditorium. There were over a thousand students and others present to hear a group of us stirring up action to fight pollution. My talk naturally centered on stopping the dumping of 67,000 tons a day of taconite tailings in Lake Superior at Silver Bay. It was a beautiful early spring day and spirits were high.

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04/21/2010 - I have recently retired from a career in government, private environmental law practice and leading an environmental advocacy non -profit.  Earth Day provided me the inspiration that I needed to get me on the path and stay there.

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04/20/2010 - Earth Day in 1970 was a consequence of the many years of neglect of our environment by the public and government which had, at last, reached a point where it could no longer be ignored.  Some early response to a growing awareness by the public led to legislation at both the federal and state levels before Earth Day, but the real degree of government intervention came following the event, which was so impressive that it caused a huge elevation in public support and legislative activity.

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04/19/2010 - by Chuck Dayton

On the first Earth Day in 1970, I assumed that by the time I was 65 or certainly by age 70, most environmental problems would be solved, and the world would be a clean and sustainable place.  I was a young lawyer, just a few years out of law school and had just joined the Sierra Club, my first foray into activism, (which caused me to be a little worried about what the conservative senior partners at my corporate law firm might think.)

The first Earth Day was a dramatic expression of a growing awareness that corporations had been using our air and water as a free dump, and something needed to be done.  It occurred at a time of anti-war protests and anti-establishment rhetoric: a time when change seemed not only possible but also inevitable.
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