Earth Day

In the early 1960s, Senator Gaylord Nelson began a movement to bring environmental problems to the forefront of the political arena. He persuaded President John Kennedy to go on a "national conservation tour". They traveled over eleven states in five days. Although it did not exactly bring the critical issues into the political limelight as hoped, it was the beginning of what is now know as Earth Day.

The Senator spoke on the issues to a variety of audiences throughout most of the states. He found the people in general to be concerned, but not the politicians. I took six years of Senator Nelson speaking to come up with the idea of Earth Day - a grassroots protest. In September of 1970, taking the idea from the anti-war demonstrations and "teach-ins",  he organized a demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The story traveled and the response was exciting. The American people finally had a forum to bring environmental concerns to the forefront where the media could generate interest.

According to Senator Nelson, Earth Day over 20 million demonstrators  and thousands of schools and communities participated. Earth Day virtually organized itself.