Beyond Earth Day; Fulfilling the Promise - Reviews - Book Review: Beyond Earth Day; Fulfilling the Promise - Book Review

American Forests, Summer, 2003 by Carl Reidel

Beyond Earth Day; Fulfilling the Promise, by Gaylord Nelson with Susan Campbell and Paul Wozniak, foreword by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

$26.95, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.

Forty years ago Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. senator from Wisconsin, began his crusade to create a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment. On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day saw 20 million demonstrators participating in thousands of communities, schools, and colleges across the country. It was the largest one-day public demonstration in the history of the United States. Even Congress adjourned for the day since most members were taking part in events in their home states and districts.

The first two chapters of this book by Sen. Nelson, now 87, recount the forces that shaped that first Earth Day and presents a "report card on the health of the planet today." Nelson concludes "we are losing the battle we're losing ground. We're becoming disaster managers." Chapters 3 through 5 support this dire assessment, outlining in greater detail the most serious environmental problems facing the United States and the world and the changing nature of pollution since the advent of synthetic chemicals.

Chapter 6, which assesses the accomplishments and shortcomings of the environmental movement today, is equally grim. While polls show an overwhelming percentage of Americans agree with the movement's goals, Nelson believes the public has lost its sense of urgency. The final two chapters set forth an ambitious "Agenda for the 21st Century." Sen. Nelson presents us with a challenging wake-up call: to abandon our "self-destructive course," which is eroding the natural systems that sustain our quality of life.