|
updated July 4, 2005
OBITUARY- Wisconsin
ex-senator, Earth Day founder
By Michael Kilian, Chicago Tribune
July 4, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Former Sen. Gaylord A. Nelson of
Wisconsin, 89, founder of Earth Day and one of
the nation's leading environmentalists of the
20th Century, died Sunday at his home in the
Washington suburb of Kensington, Md.
According to his family, the cause of death was
cardiovascular failure.
"The world has lost a great citizen and an
uncommon leader," said Ben Beach, senior editor
of the Wilderness Society, where Nelson served
as counselor after being defeated for
re-election in the Ronald Reagan landslide of
1980.
"Anyone who cares about the quality of our air,
water and land should be grateful for the life
of Gaylord Nelson," Beach said. "Earth Day
proved the power of an idea. This simple but
compelling idea truly made the world a better
place."
In 1995, then-President Bill Clinton awarded
Nelson the Medal of Freedom, the nation's
highest civilian honor, saying: "As the father
of Earth Day, he is the grandfather of all that
grew out of that event--the Environmental
Protection Act, the Clean Air Act, the Safe
Drinking Water Act. He also set a standard for
people in public service to care about the
environment and to try to do something about
it."
A native of Clear Lake, Wis., and the son of a
country doctor and nurse, Nelson received his
law degree from the University of Wisconsin in
1942. He immediately enlisted in the Army, where
he served as a lieutenant in command of a unit
of segregated black troops, and took part in the
bloody Okinawa campaign.
After establishing a law practice in Madison,
Wis., in 1946, he was elected to the state
senate in 1948, 1952 and 1956, becoming
Democratic floor leader in his last term.
He was governor of Wisconsin from 1959 to 1962,
when he was elected to the U.S. Senate, serving
three terms.
An early opponent of the Vietnam War, Nelson was
known mostly for his sweeping environmental
agenda, which ranged from eliminating DDT and
regulating automobile pollution to worldwide
family planning and oceans protection.
"We need a comprehensive and nationwide program
to save the national resources of America," he
said.
"We cannot be blind to the growing crisis of our
environment. Our soil, our water and our air are
becoming more polluted every day. Our most
priceless national resources--trees, lakes,
rivers, wildlife habitats, scenic
landscapes--are being destroyed," Nelson said.
Enlisting the support of governors and mayors
throughout the country, Nelson established the
first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, as a means of
drawing national attention to environmental
concerns.
Within the next 10 years, 23 major environmental
protection laws were enacted.
"I wanted a demonstration by so many people that
politicians would say, `Holy cow, people care
about this,' " Nelson once said. "That's just
what Earth Day did."
He also sponsored legislation placing the
Appalachian Trail under federal protection.
"He was just an incredible person: humble,
funny, proud of his roots ... and never changed
by the power and pomp of the offices that he
held," Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle said Sunday.
Nelson is survived by his wife, Carrie Lee, whom
he married in 1947; two sons, Gaylord Jr. and
Jeffrey; a daughter, Tia; and four
grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements were pending, but there
will be a memorial service in Madison. Burial
will be in Clear Lake.
|
Review of Published Science:
Climate is Being Affected by Human
Activities A review of
nearly 1,000 papers in the
scientific literature has found that
not a single serious study in the
scientific literature has cast doubt
on the consensus that the current
climate change is human-influenced.
The review -- described in
Science magazine-- was done by
University of California-San Diego
professor Naomi Oreskes. She looked
at 928 papers published in
peer-reviewed journals between 1993
and 2003. None have challenged the
analysis that says the climate is
being impacted by human activities.
Most of the climate's warming in
the last 50 years has been due to
human activities, agreed the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences in
2002. Concurring that the weight of
evidence is that human influences
are serious are the American
Meteorological Society, the American
Geophysical Union, and the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS).
Effort to Seek Energy Solutions
for United States Yields Mix
of Good and Bad in the Details
WASHINGTON (December 8, 2004) -- The report issued today by the
National Commission on Energy Policy
is an important effort to identify
opportunities for possible consensus
on challenging energy policy
questions, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council
(NRDC). It constitutes a major
step forward in many areas, but also
reflects outdated thinking in
several key areas according to NRDC.
Put together by a broad-based
panel of both environmentalists and
industrialist, the report illustrates
just how far off track Congress and
the White House have gone. A major
agreement was the need for the USA
to take action on reducing global
greenhouse gases.
|
|
|
June 2004
Freecycling Becomes
Major Trend
Freecycling is a growing
use of the Internet for recycling/reusing common
consumer items from furniture to cars. More than
500 U.S. cities now have freecycling
groups that freely give and receive goods no
longer wanted by the owner. The largest
freecycling group is in Portland, Ore., where
more than 5,200 members post dozens of messages
each day offering or asking for free items. To
see if your community has a freecycling group,
see
www.freecycling.com .
March 2004
White House cuts more
research on mercury, endocrine disruptors
A federal research program
that was highly praised last year by the
National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is part of a
planned cut by the White House. Under the
President's budget request for FY 2005, major
cuts would be made to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA) Science to Achieve
Results (STAR) program. EPA's STAR
research grants program would be cut by 30
percent or $36 million. The proposed budget cuts
come less than one year after the National
Academy of Sciences (NAS) issued a laudatory
report entitled The Measure of STAR. Among the
proposed cuts are 5 STAR grants that support
mercury research to better understand the fate
of atmospheric mercury. Also cut are:
* All funding for the EPA
Office of Environmental Education established to
implement the 1990 National Environmental
Education Act authored by former Sen. Gaylord
Nelson.
* 18 research grants
seeking scientific understanding of endocrine
disrupting chemicals.
* 50 STAR research grants
to better measure ecosystem stressors and
effects.
==================================
Feb. 2004
Nobel Scientists Claim
Bush White House Regularly Distorts Science
A joint statement by 60
prominent scientists alleges that the Bush
administration has deliberately and
systematically distorted scientific fact. The
scientist say research is subordinated to to
achieve White House policy goals on the
environment, health, biomedical research and
nuclear weaponry. The scientists include
20 Nobel laureates.
The announcement was organized by the Union of
Concerned Scientists, an independent
organization that issued a 37-page report t
detailing the accusations.
|
|
