Beyond Earth Day: Fulfilling the Promise

by Gaylord Nelson, Susan M. Campbell, Paul A. Wozniak, Robert F. Kennedy (Foreword by), Tia Nelson (Preface by)

Overview

Gaylord Nelson’s legacy is known and respected throughout the world. He was a founding father of the modern environmental movement and creator of one of the most influential public awareness campaigns ever undertaken on behalf of global environmental stewardship: Earth Day.
    Nelson died in 2005, but his message in this book is still timely and urgent, delivered with the same eloquence with which he articulated the nation’s environmental ills throughout the decades. He details the planet’s most critical concerns—from species and habitat losses to global climate change and population growth. In outlining strategies for planetary health, Nelson inspires citizens to reassert environmentalism as a national priority. Included in this reprint is a new preface by Gaylord Nelson’s daughter, Tia Nelson.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299180430
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	11/04/2002
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	222
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Gaylord Nelson (1916–2005) was governor of Wisconsin, served in the U.S. Senate from 1963 to 1981, and worked for the Wilderness Society. He originated the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995 for his contributions to the environmental protection movement. Susan Campbell, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is communications manager for the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Paul A. Wozniak is a member of the Board of Governors at the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame and a Wisconsin conservation historian. Tia Nelson is executive secretary to the Wisconsin Board of Comissioners of Public Lands. She worked for many years at the Nature Conservancy and is a past recipient of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Climate Protection Award.”

Read an Excerpt

"All economic activity is dependent upon that environment and its underlying resource base of forests, water, air, soil, and minerals. When the environment is finally forced to file for bankruptcy because its resource base has been polluted, degraded, dissipated, and irretrievably compromised, the economy goes into bankruptcy with it."

Author Biography: Gaylord Nelson was governor of Wisconsin from 1958 to 1962 and served in the U.S. Senate from 1963 to 1981. Millions of Americans joined him in observing the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995 for his contributions to the environmental protection movement and has served as counselor to the Wilderness Society since 1981. Susan Campbell is an award-winning environmental journalist and adjunct professor of journalism. Paul Wozniak is a market research analyst and environmental historian.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Foreword by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Introduction

Part 1. The Earth and Its Day

Chapter 1. Earth Day: When the People Spoke

Chapter 2. Report Card on the Earth

Part 2. Imperiled Planet

Chapter 3. Windows on the World

Chapter 4. Vanishing Resources

Chapter 5. An Invisible Threat

Part 3. Environmentalism: Then and Now

Chapter 6. Complacent Planet?

Part 4. An Environmental Agenda for the Twenty-first Century

Chapter 7. Achieving Sustainability

An Appeal

Appendix 1: Letter to John F. Kennedy

Appendix 2: Introduction to “Environmental

Agenda for Earth Day 1970”

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Editorial Reviews

"You show me pollution and I will show you people who are not paying their own way, people who are stealing from the public, people who are getting the public to pay their costs of production. All environmental pollution is a subsidy."—Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"The life of the planet and all of its inhabitants have been positively affected by the extraordinary vision and work of Senator Gaylord Nelson. The remarkable agenda he put forth in 1970 is ever more salient today, his wisdom and words needed now more than ever."—Paul G. Hawken, Natural Capital Institute, author of The Ecology of Commerce

From the Publisher