More awareness, concern, understanding about the issue now than there was. There is an important recognition on the part in general, that the activities of man on the planet are actually dangerously degrading the ecosystem that sustains all of us. Oceans, airports. We have a long way to go, but at least there is it better public understanding by the legislators, governors, congress, that this is a vital issue. Air, water, soil, rivers, oceans, and so forth. That determines our standard of living in the quality of our lives and all of these resources for many years, it is time we undertake a very serious effort to stop the degradation and help to give nature a chance to do some restoration, at least where the damage has not then irreparable. You mentioned the public and legislatures. What do you hope people will take away from this in 1990 . Sen. Nelson i think the objective, the most important objective of this earth day, are the same as 1970. My purpose than was make demonstrations so big that politicians would have to wake up, and force the issue into the political arena. 20 Million People forced the issue into the political arena, edit was a big educational effort. I would hope that the heads of state around the world would take the issue seriously and start leading in their own countries. That has been one of the big an unfortunate vacuums of the whole thing, that leaders at the president ial level, except for a couple, like the Prime Minister of norway and the Prime Minister of australia, about the only two heads of state who really have addressed this issue seriously and it hasnt stopped their agenda. I hope it will have the impact of shaking the leadership out of its lethargy. And also in 1970, a tremendous educational effort. Education is at the bottom of it. For most 10 years, when i was governor of wisconsin, i was concerned that here was an issue of primary importance to how we live on this planet, and the Political Leadership of the country was paying attention to it. I came to washington in 1962 and met with Bobby Kennedy and went through it with him. I brought along scrapbooks to show the publicity you could get by advocating protection of the environment. When i came to washington as a senator in 1963, i spoke with Bobby Kennedy again and told him the president ought to do a nationwide tour and with the president doing it, that would give it the visibility, notice, and attention that it needed to focus congress and the press and media on the issue. The president decided to do a nationwide tour in august of 1953, and he wrote me a letter and asked for some ideas and i wrote him a five page letter and then at the beginning of his tour, i took off with him, along with hubert humphrey, gene mccarthy, and the senator from pennsylvania, and we left the white house by it helicopter to the air force base, and headed out, or landing finally in minnesota, then the president gave a speech in wisconsin, and that he gave another one at jackson hole, and he was off on his conservation tour, which i was delighted about, that he got to salt lake and he said something there about Foreign Policy which got headlines all over the nation. That was the end of the conservation tour. He didnt have much support for the concept of the idea. His advisers did not think much of it. Anyway, that was the end. What i hoped would happen did not happen. It did not really get the issue into the political arena. Years went by and i kept thinking, 37 states, between 1963 and 1970, i was on a conservation speaking in late july and early august of 1969, out on the west coast, and i spoke at the university of california Santa Barbara and headed from there to speak at a conservation conference and on the way out, i picked up a magazine and there were antiwar protests all over the country. They even had the National Guard on the university of wisconsin campus. I was flying to berkeley and reading the article about the vietnam war. It suddenly popped into my head, why not have a nationwide environmental teach in . So at berkeley, i gave a speech and spoke with students and professors and they all thought it was a wonderful idea. I came back to washington and set up a nonprofit organization, made all the preparations and plans, and then announced it at a conservation speech in early september, seattle, and it made the front page, a lot of newspapers. It just took off, a really remarkable, grassroots response. It got so big that after three months, i could not run anymore in my office. All of the telephone calls and stuff could be referred to. The last three months, it kept going. We did not have to do an awful lot. It just grew on its own. What was the reaction in the places you spoke . Were you the voice in the wilderness . Did they listen to what you had to say and say that is nice and met not pay much attention . Sen. Nelson i did speak to the legislature in massachusetts. What happened was practically every member of congress got invitations to speak on a campus or at some event in their own state or their own congressional district. I received about 86 requests for members of congress for concrete from members of congress for copies of speech is because they had not given any speeches and what are the issues . Politicians respond to a grassroots demonstration of concern. My friends and those in congress were all disposed and congress adjourned for the day so they could go out. It was a very positive, very good event. Grassroots demonstration of we have i do not know what. Many conservationists and environmentalists, well it knowledged, voted in the senate. In 1970, you were quoted as saying represents the antithesis of freedom. That is an excerpt out of the speech. What we have been doing is taking away from people by polluting the air in the water, polluting the soil, destroying wildlife habitats, we have taken away one of the fundamental qualities of life, without people having really very specific participation or decision in it. We have allowed industry and business to externalize their costs by degrading the air and the rivers and the lakes and charge you to the public. That was a sentence out of the speech where i was making that kind of a point, depriving the people of important rights to have a decent environment. And that is an important right. It is not legally enforceable, of course. We do not want to live in a dirty environment. You mention in 1970, congress have the day off. What impact did earth have on congress . Sen. Nelson it has the impact i had hoped for. I was only hoping it would be a demonstration so big that it would force the issue into the political dialogue. Force it to the attendance attention to the politicians who were not paying attention to it. It did that. Any number of friends of mine up there said you know, i had not given a thought to this issue in the past. It has never been raised that i can see it is an important issue. There were some good people out there already but there are many more now. Did it stay to the forefront of 1970 or do they go back quickly thereafter . For 18 years, i would get calls and say, whatever happened to earth day. I only organized it for one purpose. It never went on the back burner. President reagan was opposed to it. He did not see any point to any of the environmental things. Which was quite tragic because it cost us and eat your loss an eightyear loss. From which we never recovered. But every single year, the interest and concern of the people kept arriving, so it was on the back burner because you had it a resident who was antienvironmental, pointing everybody to every conceivable position you could point, who did not believe in the mission of the agency they headed up, whether it is the epa, the service, but the concern of the public kept rising. Every single year, something happened that dramatizes to the people the fragility of the environment. Whether it is the oil spill, or the threat of global warming, or Hazardous Waste dumps into the underground water supply. People are more sensitive now than they were. How is president bush doing in regards to the environment . Sen. Nelson i hope you will become an environmental president. I hope he will give a message to the congress and country and layout in agenda and ask for public support. What we lack for many years was president ial leadership and went i hope we get it from president bush. He wrote a letter asking mr. Gorbachev to participate in earth day. Did you hear back . Sen. Nelson no. We sent that letter and copies to the embassy here. He is going to be in this country and in washington. We simply invited him to address the conservation groups, and were hoping he will. He has had other issues higher up on his agenda. But we hope when he comes here, he will. He has set already said already that the economy and the environment are two of the most serious challenges he faces. In the newsletter that is out, you have written that president bush would inspire the world, if you would propose that the u. S. And the soviet union would mutually reduce military expenditures by 50 in the next 10 years. Explain that. Sen. Nelson and another 50 in the decade after. The soviet union and the United States have been engaged in a totally irrational race. When you consider that every single year, we spent more money and we have become less secure. 35 years ago, we cannot deliver multiple warheads. This was around the world in 20 minutes or half way round. So what would you say and what would you think of a society where were spending huge amounts of money to become less secure than the year before . Now, the arms race ought to stop. The president ought to step forward and say lets have a worldwide conference. What are these for the public support in all countries would be tremendous. Pregoofy when you get down to it. There is no point with the soviet union us continuing that. The two of us have been spending 600 million 300 and dollars a piece. We are to have a target getting the down to 50 billion, maybe below that. That ought to be a target, start using these sources and allocating half of these resources to being the resources of the planet, to sustain our life here. How foolish can we be . The threat of nuclear war is not nearly as serious as the declining environment because that disaster is inevitable unless we do something. It is time for someone to step forward and say ok, we do not need all of these goofy expenditures and all of that stuff. Lets get down to the business of making this a livable planet. The public would support that all over the world. Do you suggest the savings be used to help the environment . If you just put enough dollars into the issue, is a just a question of my question mark no. A larger allocation and we have. We are spending it in another way. We are the assets and county on the profit side of the ledger. We are polluting the air and polluting the oceans, polluting the rivers, the waste, eroding the soils in this country and all over the world. The assets and determine the wealth of any country. We are paying a big price for that. It would be a lot cheaper for us to do things to bring this aggradation to a halt. People say you cannot afford to stop this. We cannot afford not to stop this because we would go bankrupt the way were doing. In articles, you have written about earth day. One of the goals is to change the attitude. Sen. Nelson we have, ever since our ancestors landing here, we viewed the country of unlimited abundance. Therefore, we could spend it without limit and all the water and the soil, and that nature, would take care of it. We found out that is not so. We have done all kinds of things that are terribly costly and cost us 100 times as much to curate to stop it into the first place. And all of that. I think when we talk about what is the most important issue, the most important conservation issue, everyone would list all kinds of things. Exponential population growth. We are probably beyond the place of the planet can support. You get ex potential population growth. Groundwater pollution, the ocean water pollution. Most important issue is the one rarely mentioned. That is the lack of conservation ethic and the culture of our ethic and the culture of our society. All parts of it are important. I received a germination of this kind of ethic in this country. Ive been talking for almost 35 years around the country, every place and somebody comes up many of them are teachers. They have a strong ethical concept. High school kids coming up whose parents are more sensitive teaching them. I see the germination of an ethic that will say that if we are intruding someplace, what are the consequences . If we had any ordinary commonsense in the politics of the country, we would not have practically destroyed the everglades by diverting the water and so forth. We would not have destroyed half the wetlands of the country, subsidizing crops that are already in surplus to the farmers could drain wetlands and grow more. We would not have polluted the rivers and so forth. We have to develop a society out of the young folks here, the society that demands to know and asks the question, what are the consequences of our actions and if they are negative, we just will not do it. Americans compared how do americans compare this to come compared to the others around the world . In my reading, social, cultural, history, and the people who have that i know of, they kind of have a respect for nature. Native people. The land does not belong to us. It belongs to future generations. I do not know enough about other parts of the world. It is interesting to note that socialist countries of the world have been far worse in their treatment of the environment in the capitalist countries have been. Both have been bad. But the socialist countries have done much worse. It will take a generation with a real ethic to reverse this. America is often described as a throwaway and disposable do you see that changing . Things that develop incrementally, half the things in this country, municipalities, according to the best of physics, i think half of them will be feel the next five years. We will stop the throw a business and everyone will have the backyard and back porch and basement filled with trash. I think there is a developing sense that this is not sound policy. We throw away stuff and dump it away. There are all kinds of people who manufacture things to sell. Manufacturing them so it will not last long. I think that is changing and it will have to change and it will change rapidly in the next 15 or 20 years. Are you an outdoorsman . Hiker, camper question mark camper . I love to fish, yes. When you have been out in the wilderness in the past 20 years, what of you seen . Things getting worse before they get better . Of course, if you are talking about designated wildernesses, we have the Wilderness Society involved in protecting more wilderness. America,cial areas of most of the large sections the only large sections of land of natural america left our federal land. Government owns almost square miles. One Million National parks, refuges, all of them are being degraded. All of them. The National Forest is the worst situation. You have a for Service Managed at the top irresponsibly in my view. Little concern for environmental matters. All kinds of professional forresters are worried and writing the chief of the forest letters. Agency, its a disaster. The Parks Service is losing ground. The wildlife refuges are losing ground. These magnificent areas, which are the last 26 of america, the likeland left quite a bit they were on the ancestors lived are being degraded day by day and year by year. It is a great tragedy. Once they are gone, and i say gone once they are commercialized overdeveloped as , we are doing in our parks, or polluting the grand canyon or sending 50,000 flights down to the grand canyon, we are taking this magnificent heritage. We are compromising it. It has gotten much worse in the past 20 years and i would like to see some leadership. A level that says to the four stop stop wasting 400 million a year selling timber and losing money selling timber off the forests. Stop selling the last stands of the ancient forest, losing money every year and shipping it all to the pacific rim. If the president would step forward and tell the service to nonsense and tell the park service to be a whole lot tougher on management, we do not need developing campsites in the parks. That is for the private sector. Keep the parks in the natural condition. In terms of the wilderness and wild areas, we are losing ground tragically, very rapidly. , we do not have much leadership at the top telling the Forest Service in the park service the fish and Wildlife Service and the bureau of Wildlife Management to do a better job of protecting the integrity of those resources that almost no other country in the world, no industrial country the world has anything comparable. We are letting his fully go down letting it slowly go down the drain. Will there have to be a reservation . There is not any question about that. Preserving areas in their natural condition in perpetuity. Any time you reach a stage where you are over pressuring the resource and is being degraded, you will destroy the wilderness if you do that. Therefore you have to say you have to apply for the opportunity to go in. Of course that is already true. Up in the knowledge and alaska denali in alaska if you put , too many people into the wilderness area, you pretty soon do not have a wilderness area. What are things people will see today that are the same, but what would be different about this earth day . Sen. Nelson in terms of activities, you know, the wonderful, Creative Ideas that bubble up on college campuses, grade schools and high schools, those kids had a lot more idea then we folks did. I knew it had more than i did. You will see all of this and some of it will be dramatic, and funny and humorous, like the one out west someplace, where somebody had to sign on a goat, the sign said to eat garbage, what are you doing for the environment . But there will be a lot of interesting activities but also things we never saw before. There will be satellite broadcasts all around the world. Every actor and entertainer in the country seems to want to be on a program. They have grabbed the issue. That is fine. Business and industry are jumping into the issue. Its going to be a fascinating area. All of the issues, there are new issues, but all of the old issues are here and will be here for some time to come. Your bio talks about the things you have done. Earth day. You are the original sponsor of the legislation setting aside the appalachian trail. First to introduce legislation mandating fuel efficiency. First introduced legislation banning ddt. What accomplishment are you most proud of . Sen. Nelson i think in terms of its impact as a educational and political matter has had a , greater impact than anything else. Im very happy about some other matters such as was able to put the Apostle Islands of the state of wisconsin, those beautiful islands off the north shore of wisconsin into the park system. The river i grew up on, one of the beautiful rivers on the midwest. It comes down from up in northern wisconsin and finally joints into the mississippi joins into the mississippi river. Im happy about that because those are resources i grew up with. I would say that earth day, i am probably happiest with that. You are watching American History tv, covering history cspan style with coverage, i would us accounts, archival films, lectures and college classrooms, and visits to museums and historic places, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. Tonight on the civil war, Gettysburg NationalMilitary Park ranger talks about the formation and combat experience of the union armys irish brigade. Here is a preview. Hes got a bigger problem than winter. He has very low morale in some of these troops. He needs to find a way to revive that energy. Remember the overall plan . Why are these men fighting . Again experience to take back the pfeiffer irelands freedom while he is losing almost nine out of the 10, hes open the experience that one gains will be enough to carry over for irelands freedom. He has to balance the reality with the need of these soldiers. They will put63, on st. Patricks day activities. These are actual drawings of some of the events that took place. He will instigate a party of reverie, of gaiety, and he will look to revive the men and keep their interest not only in fighting in the american civil war, but eventually for irelands freedom. Many contests were held. Forhad different contests enlisted men versus some of the officers. The enlisted men would have foot races, weight throwing, irish dancing, wheel Barrel Racing and one of my favorites, summit oiled up a pig and the prize went to the one who caught it. Learn more about the irish brigade tonight at 6 00 p. M. Eastern here on American History tv. Next on American History tv, air force veteran and former nasa flight director gene kranz discusses his life and career, culminating the stories about apollo 11 and apollo 13. This talk marking the 50th anniversary of apollo 11 was part of the American Veterans centers annual conference in washington dc. Rep. Horn it is now my pleasure i think he is here to jared holbrook, are you still here . Oh, he is behind me. I was waiting for you to come to the other side. From dallas, texas, by way of