Today marks Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day I thought I would bring you up to speed on how the day came about. It all started in 1962 with the actions of Senator Gaylor Nelson. Nelson, was discouraged by the nation's care for the environment. In 1962 the idea of conserving the environment was basically a non-issue. Things changed later that year when Nelson convinced President Kennedy to go on a National Conservation Tour. The tour didn't exactly put the environment in the public limelight but it was just enough to stir up a little commotion. Over the next few years Nelson continued to speak about the state of the nation's environment and the evidence of environmental degradation began to appear; most politicians, however, still weren't convinced that conserving the earth was an important topic. Finally in the summer of 1969, Nelson came up with an idea. It was a time when anti-Vietnam War demonstrations had struck college campuses across the country. Nelson, decided to take his notion for a cleaner environment to the public who could help force the issue onto the political agenda. His idea worked just as planned. He announced that in the spring of 1970 he would start a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the behalf of the environment and the response was electric. On April 22nd, 1970 the first Earth Day was born.

Until Next Time,

Andrew Thut
News 19 Forecast Team

Comments

[poetryman69]

We marvel that a hundred years ago some scientists thought that a man could not survive traveling over 25 miles an hour. I believe that people of the future will marvel that we wasted billions of
dollars and dozens of years on ideas such as Earth Day and Global warming when the solution
to all our energy and pollution problems was within easy grasp. Our real problems are political,
regulatory and legislative. If government clears the way, American can stop paying
tyrants, terrorists and dictators for oil. Once that oil money vanishes, all the world's
trouble makers dry up and blow away. We have all the energy we need now in the form of our own nuclear power,oil, coal, and natural gas. If we fund research into solar and even more exotic forms of alternative energy the future will be secure as well. Keeping the cash at home will make us economically secure. Not turning corn into ethanol will get the world fed again. Getting rid of our addiction to foreign oil stops all oil wars. Few things are more wasteful, expensive, or kill more people needlessly than oil wars.