Latest news with #GaylordNelson
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Bird Banter: Normalizing environmental safeguards was going well
I grew up mostly in Wisconsin, home of legendary conservationist Aldo Leopold and Earth Day co-founder Gaylord Nelson. I headed off to college four years after the first Earth Day. Between those influences and a month-long camping and hiking trip through Montana, Wyoming and Colorado with my uncle and aunt at an impressionable age, it wasn't surprising that I chose to study natural resources at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. 'Conservation' was an acceptable word in 1974 and popular with outdoorsmen (and it was mostly men back then), but 'Environmental' was not popular with the establishment, especially as part of the title of the new agency restricting air and water pollution and other hazards. College students like a good fight, so I joined the student-run Environmental Council, which was energized by returning Vietnam vets. I helped put out the council's newsletter, which led to my becoming the environmental editor for the mainstream campus weekly. Other than Judy Collins, my most memorable interview was with a dairy farmer whose neighbor had sprayed his farm with pesticides and apparently killed his calves. No one else was taking his complaint seriously, except the farmer's dairy co-op, which wouldn't take his milk anymore. In my last 50 years, 36 in Cheyenne, I've been pleased to see that 'Environment' has become a term for not only saving sage grouse but keeping people safe, too. Environmental organizations have made friends and alliances with people who share concerns, such as hunting and fishing groups, farmers and ranchers as well as health organizations. Even the federal government, for 12 of the last 16 years, was making progress on the biggest current environmental concern, climate change. In so many ways, people have been making choices supporting the health of the environment. There's not a single major auto manufacturer today that is not offering electric alternatives. Even here in Wyoming where electric power still is mostly from fossil fuels — the main climate change culprits — EVs make economic as well as environmental sense. There's not a conventional gardening magazine today that hasn't embraced the pollinator message, and often organic practices. Modern gardening advice encourages planting native plants that require fewer pesticides, less water and less chemical fertilizer (a major water pollutant). Citizen/community scientists are augmenting all kinds of environmental studies. The one I participate in most often is eBird. Studying birds helps us see what birds need, and where and when, but it's a no-brainer: like us, they need a clean, intact environment. So as a birder, I try to make environmentally helpful decisions. Mark and I replaced our toilets with low-flow versions, installed higher R-value windows and insulation and keep our cats from killing birds and other wildlife. I think anyone conservative about their buying habits can be considered an environmentalist — it's manufacturing so much stuff that is part of our problem. I've had some clothes for more than 20 years — they still fit and blend in fine when I'm with a crowd of hikers, gardeners or birders. I'd rather eat at restaurants with real dishes instead of using single-use plastic. We limit our redecorating — we've had the same classic oak dining table since 1982. We relish leftovers and making them into new meals. More people are looking for outdoor recreational opportunities, a good thing that typically goes hand in hand with regard to the environment. Of course, some outdoor recreation, such as off-roading off the trails, is damaging to the environment. All of us were doing well at saving electricity with more efficient lights and other electrical uses, but now we have energy-hungry bitcoin 'farms' and data centers. The future could be visually polluted and a menace to birds with wind turbines and solar panels spread across the landscape, though they are an improvement over the clouds of pollution I grew up with in the Milwaukee-Chicago area. But I think we are on track for power production innovations in the future. Or we were. Since mid-January, we have been inundated with federal administration edicts that want to take us back to the dark ages in many different aspects of life including the environment. Just when we thought the arguments for clean air and water, for instance, are universally acceptable, we find our federal government taken over by people who don't think clean air and water are important. I asked this 50 years ago: just where are the anti-environmentalists planning to get clean water to drink for themselves (bottled water isn't guaranteed) and clean air to breathe? We know what needs to be done for a healthier planet. We were studying how to do it better. But it seems this administration is intent on making messes it doesn't think it will have to live in.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Earth Day Has Failed
After witnessing a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara in 1969, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson began hatching the idea for what would become known as the world's first 'Earth Day.'The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. It's estimated that over 20 million Americans (10% of the country's population at the time) took to the streets to protest and demonstrate against the impacts of 150 years of industrial development. The movement was powerful, and many Americans were united on the Earth Day's mission, "to broaden, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide" has largely failed.55 years later and the United States of America's sitting president is a vehement climate change denier. Rather than heed the warnings of the world's smartest climate scientists about the inevitable effects of a warming planet, he believes in falsehoods that make him comfortable, a practice repeated by millions of Americans across social media and real-life planet is struggling, but folks who seek to deny climate change, and spread anti-environmentalism rhetoric for personal or monetary gain, are winning. It's to keep up with the best stories and photos in skiing? Subscribe to the new Powder To The People newsletter for weekly updates. Skiing is intrinsically linked to the climate, something that I don't need to explain to you, and yet, many of us are lost when it comes to the matter. It's not clear if social media algorithms are being manipulated, something I wouldn't put past a billionaire CEO of a social media company, but it seems as if climate change denial, and more noticeably, the shaming of climate change activists is growing in the comments section of ski resorts, weather forecasters, and athlete's of these internet trolls popping out every once in a while to spew misinformation, the comments are littered with vitriol, personal attacks, and name-calling. For whatever reason, these climate change deniers embolden each other to shame, make fun of, and even attack folks who believe that humans are responsible for the Earth's unprecedented increase in average temperature.10% of the country's population rallied together on the first Earth Day, a monumental feat, but today, we have never been more divided. I apologize for the doom and gloom, but that's the reality of America on Earth Day 2025. It feels bleak, because it is bleak, but all hope isn't Sunday, April 20, 2025, I watched as thousands of skiers poured into Alta Ski Area's Wildcat lot before 7 a.m.. In a mere matter of minutes, dozens of tailgate parties, social gatherings, and live concerts began to spring up around the above the scene, I smiled as the greatest thing about humans was on full display around me— our desire to connect with others. Smiles, hugs, greetings, jokes, laughs, pats on the back, cheers, and chants of "CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!" created a buzz around the parking lot. Folks from all walks of life were coming together, and enjoying a beautiful day of skiing, eating, drinking, and partying. It was I drove back home to Truckee from Salt Lake City the following day, a podcast playing through my car's sound system mentioned that Earth Day was upcoming. Still coming off the high of Alta's closing day, a thought came racing across my mind.I'll admit, the thought is quite idealistic, but it's giving me hope during this otherwise depressing Earth Day— Despite our intense social and political climate, over 10,000 skiers gathered at Alta without incident. Politics, religion, and other divisive matters went out the window. That's a good thing in a country that doesn't seem interested in protecting its home, the be clear, skiing at one of the best ski areas in the world doesn't guarantee one's willingness to fight for climate change action, but it told me something about humans that I needed a reminder of— we want to feel connected, loved, and safe. On that day at Alta, over 10,000 of us experienced some semblance of these feelings, and it was a beautiful thing.I fear that climate change deniers have lost their sense of community. It's easier to be selfish, and to lambast others for believing in climate change, when one has lost or never found their own community. Other-izing becomes second nature. Anger is a Day failed in the sense that our climate challenges have gotten worse, not better, since the first celebration in 1970. Where it succeeded, however, is in bringing people together for a common cause, a human tradition that is wavering as the digital age seizes control of our attention words nor my magical experience at Alta Ski Area will end climate change, but I hope it elicits one person, hopefully a climate change denier, to reengage with their community. Talk to people you care about. Learn about what they're going through. Find your Alta Ski Area on closing for Mother Earth becomes much easier when a person cares about other people. Happy Earth Day. Be well, and go spend time with the people you love.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Happy Earth Day 2025! Write your name in NASA satellite images and celebrate our planet (video)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Happy Earth Day! April 22 is traditionally known as Earth Day, the occasion where we pause as temporary travelers on our 'blue marble' to honor and respect our precious planetary home and its immeasurable beauty, allowing for greater appreciation of this distinctive world's bounty of resources. This yearly reflective holiday was first founded as Earth Day on April 22, 1970 by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, when 20 million Americans united as a concerned force to bring attention to the vital importance of recognizing key environmental issues facing our fragile "third rock from the sun" and rejoice in the natural treasures we all enjoy on a daily basis. To help commemorate and engage in Earth Day 2025, one fun activity we can all partake in is a special NASA page where participants can download this year's inspiring Earth Day Poster and also view and export their name magically written out in letters formed by actual Landsat satellite images. For over six decades, NASA has been monitoring, observing, and recording images of Earth from the lofty vantage point of space to aid in our understanding of this ever-changing and unique planet using the most revolutionary technology of the times for the benefit of all humankind. RELATED STORIES: — Planet Earth: Everything you need to know — Earth Day: What is it and why does it matter? — Earth Day 2024: Witness our changing planet in 12 incredible satellite images "NASA Science delivers every second of every day for the benefit all, and it begins with how we observe our home planet from the unique vantage point of space," said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Our satellites, Mars rovers, astronauts and other NASA Science missions send back beautiful images of our planet, from the smallest of plankton to the pale blue dot, to help give us a comprehensive, detailed view of our home that we especially celebrate each Earth Day."
Daily Tribune
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Tribune
Earth Day: A Milestone in the History of US Environmentalism
April 22, 1970, marked the nationwide celebration of the first Earth Day in the United States. The event was the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and the choreography of Dennis Hayes, a Harvard Law School student. It began as a loosely connected series of environmental teachins at colleges, high schools, and community centers across the country and then metamorphosed into a typical public display of concern for the planet in the form of demonstrations, parades, and rallies in support of environmental reforms. Earth Day was not an unexpected demonstration. It was the natural outgrowth of the mounting public awareness of the ecological crisis compellingly described by Rachel Carson in her seminal book Silent Spring. In line with Carson's argument, Earth Day emphasized that post-WWII obsession with chemical pesticides, industrial growth, and consumerism was straining the environment to breaking point, introducing many Americans to the idea of 'living lightly on the earth.' On a positive note, Earth Day heralded the advent of environmentalism in the United States as a social movement. It was primarily a grassroots initiative in which even the mainstream conservation groups played little role in it. Considering the political ferment of the 1960s, it would not be something of an anachronism to frame Earth Day within the hippie counterculture movement sweeping American society. Mixing the rhetoric of moral suasion with the tactics of the anti-Vietnam War and civil rights movements, Hayes fashioned a strategy that simultaneously included and excluded militance. What makes Earth Day and the ensuing environmental movement typical, however, in comparison with other contemporaneous social movements, is that a great deal of their ideology was premised on the unpolarizing notions of consensus and compromise, eschewing as much as they could inclinations towards radicalism and militance. In other words, instead of becoming oppositional in the manner of social activism of the decade, environmentalism became a point of healing in the context of bipartisan and generational conflict that was racking the United States. Environmental protection became the sort of issue on which a wide range of Americans, from the leaders of industry to politicians to laypeople, could agree. This assured Earth Day a wide reach. Mainly due to the compromising nature of the environmental issue, Earth Day achieved rousing success, with more than 20 million people from all walks of life participating in what has been described as the largest, cleanest, most peaceful demonstration in American history. 'The key to the whole thing,' Nelson recalled, 'was the grassroots response.' A central ramification of Earth Day and, to be fair, some other previous events, was the immediate incorporation of the environment into mainstream American politics. Almost overnight, environmentalism became the central issue of the nation. As late as 1968, the Brookings Institution did not list ecology among the issues believed to be addressed by the new Nixon administration. However, by 1970, pollution and the environment became issues of national gravity and proportion, propelling it to the top of the national political agenda. Nixon's Secretary of the Interior, John C. Whitaker, later recalled 'when President Nixon and his staff walked into the White House on January 20, 1969, we were totally unprepared for the tidal wave of public opinion in favor of cleaning up the environment that was about to engulf us.' 192 countries now celebrating Interestingly, Earth Day has had a far-reaching impact on the international level, with at least 192 countries now celebrating this event on the same day. More recently, in 2009, the event was co-opted by the United Nations, which established an International Mother Earth Day through a resolution endorsed by more than fifty countries. The Kingdom of Bahrain, embodied in its Supreme Council for Environment, wholeheartedly embraces this initiative through the regular organization of lectures and events that aim at raising local people's consciousness about environmental sustainability.
USA Today
22-04-2025
- Business
- USA Today
On Earth Day, celebrate a trio of heartwarming efforts to make the world a better place
On Earth Day, celebrate a trio of heartwarming efforts to make the world a better place Show Caption Hide Caption This entrepreneur has created a solution to surplus food wastage Jasmine Crowe is the founder of Goodr, an organization that collects excess food from various sources and offers it free to the hungry. Womankind, USA TODAY There's no place like home, as the saying goes. And on April 22 each year, we're invited to celebrate our home by observing Earth Day. From a woman tackling waste by creating meals for the hungry from surplus food to a conservation group dedicated to rescuing and releasing sea turtles, to a community garden that lets low-income people pick produce for free, these heartwarming stories are all about enhancing the world we live in. Watch the video below to see one woman's mission to cut food waste Jasmine Crowe's mission to combat hunger ingeniously matches supply with demand. As the founder of Goodr, she came up with the idea of creating healthy, nourishing meals from surplus food that might otherwise be tossed away by food venues such as restaurants, airports, sports arenas, or even wedding receptions. Her business model is simple -- collect surplus food from those who have it and get it to those who need it, free of charge. Watch the video below to see an environmental group release 100 baby sea turtles into the ocean 100 baby sea turtles scramble towards ocean Sea Turtle Conservation of the Pacific release newborn turtles into the ocean at sunset. Earthkind, USA TODAY Sea Turtle Conservation of the Pacific is focused on protecting nesting beaches, rescuing and rehabilitating turtles, and combating environmental threats like climate change and pollution. To protect a batch of sea turtle eggs from possible poachers, the group rescued them and hatched them in a lab before releasing 100 baby sea turtles into the ocean. Watch the video below to see an urban garden where the produce comes for free Urban oasis grows farm-to-table food for community Kula Urban Farm's 'Farm Without Borders' in Asbury, N.J. grows fresh produce and invites the community to take what they need for free. USA TODAY Kula Urban Farm grows fresh produce in the city for sale to local restaurants and residents, but neighbors are also invited to get that same food for free! Called the 'Farm Without Borders,' the project is not only a valuable resource for low-income people in the area but also an example of sustainable farming that promotes a sense of community. Earth Day was created in 1970 by Gaylord Nelson. The senator from Wisconsin organized nationwide college teach-ins with the help of a young activist named Denis Hayes. The teach-ins raised awareness about environmental issues as part of a wider conservationist movement. In 1990, Earth Day fittingly went global and is currently observed in more than 190 countries, with an estimated one billion people taking part in activities such as environmental cleanups, tree plantings, educational campaigns, and climate action. As with any environmental discussion, the views championed on Earth Day can be polarizing and controversial. But there's one indisputable fact: we've only got one planet. So, whatever methods we choose, it's in our best interests to take care of it. Humankind is your go-to spot for good news! Click here to submit your uplifting, cute, or inspiring video moments for us to feature. Also, click here to subscribe to our newsletter, bringing our top stories of the week straight to your inbox.
