Gaylord Nelson (1916–2005)

After Wisconsinite Nelson began his 18-year stint as a senator in 1963, he was shocked to discover how severe air and water pollution had become. Recognizing that people everywhere shared his concerns (he cites the infamous day in 1969 when the toxic Cuyahoga River burst into towering flames), he thought, "Why not organize a huge, grassroots protest about what was happening to our environment?" Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970, and in its aftermath crucial federal initiatives put a halt to the worst offenses. But three decades later, thanks to a burgeoning human population, myriad sources of toxic waste, corporate greed, and general complacency, Nelson, as avid and well informed as ever, observes that we face renewed and increasingly dire environmental threats. Along with his coauthors, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who provides a rousing foreword, the Earth Day founder presents exceptionally lucid explanations of a host of current ecoissues, and calls for a renewed effort to keep these potentially catastrophic predicaments visible and their possible solutions viable through education and citizen action. Donna Seaman
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