Earth Day Legacy Depends on Us

Fourty years ago, in 1970, a group of us, led by then Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, organized the first Earth Day.  Last week, we had the first Earth Day without Senator Nelson, who died last year at the age of 89.  It was his vision that made Earth Day happen, but it will be the job of a new generation to keep it going.

As winter gave way to spring in 2006, I was admittedly ambivalent about where we are headed in terms of environmental protection – as a people, as a nation and as a world.

In 1970, the impacts of pollution in America were evident for all to see.  Black smoke billowed from smokestacks and dead fish floated in polluted rivers.  People across America knew our country was getting polluted but we didn’t quite know what to do about it.  Senator Nelson, seeing a need for national leadership, spearheaded not only the first Earth Day, but also a movement in the United States Congress to write legislation to protect our environment.

As a result, the following years brought some great successes.  Congress passed the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.  The federal government created fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, and state after state passed legislation to ensure a clean and healthy environment for future generations.

Somewhere along the line – perhaps coinciding with the rise of conservative talk radio and conservative cable news programming – positive feelings about our collective work to protect the environment turned into a backlash against “tree huggers.”

Sadly, as we celebrated Earth Day 2006 we are without the kind of leadership Senator Nelson and others provided at the national level.  Not only has Congress not passed a meaningful piece of conservation legislation in the past decade, the current administration has made it a priority to roll-back previously designated environmental protections. This is a discouraging state of affairs.

However, I am heartened by what I see when I travel across America and visit with people in their communities.  For example, I spent this past Earth Day in Montana.  People there, in that relatively conservative state, are interested in another type of “conserv” – conservation – and are concerned about issues like global climate change. 

Montanans know first hand what is at stake.  The glaciers in beautiful Glacier National Park are melting at an alarming rate and will be gone, scientists say, within the next 30 years.  Farmers and ranchers have suffered nearly a decade of dry weather and increased temperatures, making an already difficult job even harder.  Talk to hunting and fishing enthusiasts and learn that the ducks are on the decline and rising river temperatures are putting a real strain on the trout habitat in the land of Norman McLean’s beloved Blackfoot River.

Montana’s former United States Senators, Mike Mansfield and Lee Metcalf, worked with Senator Gaylord Nelson on the legislation that was born out of the original Earth Day movement.  Current Senator Max Baucus marshaled the most recent Clean Air Act through the United States Senate in 1990 and Governor Brian Schweitzer this year launched a special committee to deal specifically with climate change issues.  What I see in Montana gives me hope.

But hope is not enough.  Ensuring a healthy climate for future generations will take action.  And like it or not, leadership on these issues will not come from Washington, D.C.  Unlike the obvious effects of the 60’s and 70’s – dead fish and smokestacks – the current issues facing us are more difficult to see.  We can’t see greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, we can’t taste mercury in the fish we eat, and a change in temperature of one degree here and there doesn’t seem like a big deal.

Our “leaders” will have to be led by us.  They are going to need all of us to give them the courage to lead and the will to take a stand. It’s not about the environment versus the economy or liberal versus conservative, it’s about ensuring that our children and grandchildren have the same opportunities that we have. That was Senator Nelson’s vision and it can be our future.

Doug La Follette is an original Earth Day organizer and the current Secretary of State of Wisconsin.

Paid for by La Follette Campaign Fund
R. Wahlers, Treasurer