Transcripts For CSPAN3 Doug 20240705

Good morning. Thank you for getting up, everybody. And coming to hear me. I really appreciate it. Im just making sure my sounds good. Im here on a new book i wrote called Spring Revolution and the origins of that began really when i was a boy because mother and father were teachers and we had some one perk of being a teacher is gets some extra summer time and we used our extra time as a family. We went all over the United States visiting our National Parks and seashores. You know, i got to go to yellowstone and the olympics in the everglades. Wed have a pontiac and Station Wagon and a trail or i grew up in northwest ohio, the midwest, and we would then just go see the country and had asthma as a boy. And and it was horrible. And wherever went, i was so reinforced by picking up brochures like we used to do in those days and on it i would sit at the place would saved by Theodore Roosevelt who also had asthma as a boy and was would suffer mightily. So identified with tr and i realized that he ended up as i did more more looking save 234 million acres, 234 million acres of wild america. He created todays us forest service. You know he all these western National Forests or Theodore Roosevelt he took and created 51 federal bird reservations with executive fiat. They showed him that birds were being slaughtered in florida because. He was a feathers war. Anybody coming . Hear me speak. Between 1910. Lets just say circa 1900 would have come this morning if you were a woman here. Whether you think you would have or not, you would have come to hear a Public Lecture wearing a bonnet with an ornamental feather in it, because it was a feather. Must be in florida and theyd gun all the birds down at the rookeries and theyd the feathers. And then they would also steal the eggs. And all of these species were dying and nothing. Federal intervention more than certain environmental things. What does it do for the Audubon Society . A massachusetts, to say were saving, you know, birds, species because of our progressive polyp and a vigorous audubon, massachusetts, just for those migratory birds to be shot, willing and slaughtered in florida. And the same with air. It doesnt do any good with air quality to say are ohio and we have a stringent air quality if where i grew up in toledo the factories of detroit are blowing in dirt over the ohio border. What do you know . There has to be federal air quality and Water Quality on a river that goes through places and treatment. None. This stuff you came until the book i wrote. But the point is, i wrote a book called the wilderness warrior, Theodore Roosevelt and the crusade for america all about that generation. What i the first wave of environmentalists was conservation. There are differences, but for our brief today, lets use word environment first reform wave oh one 1909 its the progressive era Theodore Roosevelt who said conservation environmentalism is the number one concern of our country. Even above his great white fleet being built in the navy. I wrote that book, and then i when i did it, i said, theres one other thing, Franklin Roosevelt did it to i know you guys have all heard talks about Theodore Roosevelt or fdr but i to tell you one thing to know about them, Theodore Roosevelt was the state went to harvard, fdr to harvard. Theodore roosevelt was a state legislature in new york fdr was state legislature taught in new york. Theodore roosevelt was governor new york, fdr was governor of new york. Theodore roosevelt, big navy. That was his obsession. Fdr had a big obsession with it. Theodore roosevelt said that conservation is the most important thing. Fdr said, conservationist the most important thing in his first new deal act was the civilian conservation corps were unemployed, got paid a dollar a day and planted 3 billion trees across america because we had drained all of our wetlands we have denuded all of our forests. We had taken the it created a dustbowl ecology, cold disaster all through the great plains west. But i should also add, Theodore Roosevelt had a niece named eleanor roosevelt, and fdr married, their type. And when you deal with the environmental conservation, those president s are giants. And i wrote two books on them. So the book im is silent spring. Remember, evolution is about the third wave. And incidentally, fdr, 800 state parks, 800 that i can go to him him saving Big Ben National Park on dday which did he had all the dday maps of big ben where visitor stations are to be fdr. Right while our were invading normandy did not a game for the roosevelts Environment Conservation but the third wave i had to write didnt have a figure like that. It didnt have a figure like fdr or whoever. He filled out an application. What is his job hed write tree farmer. He saw Christmas Trees out of his home. He was born along the hudson river. Spent his life along the hudson is on the hudson and really was the leader of what today we call the scenic cuts River Movement to protect that beautiful, incredible waterway. So my third wave that i had a problem where to begin, who to focus in this book and ideally wanted to begin in 1960. John kennedys running for president new frontier day. If look at the democratic plank that year environments tucked in there pretty heavily, very firmly, because was a feeling that a correct feeling that truman and eisenhower didnt do enough on the National Resources or parks environment it was all boom boom postwar industrialized you should car culture build it, build it, build it. And now kennedy was going to kind of be time out and still adams, the great california, brought out his book in 60 called this is the american. I could have milked that Rachel Carson, who to mention in a minute was writing was member of the new frontier John F Kennedy writing planks for the Democratic Party being hosted by Ethel Kennedy. Bobby kennedys by jackie kennedy. Her you know so thought ive been in 60 i knew the where i was ending the book the third wave ended 1973 not even a. It ended in 1973 with the triumph of the endangered species act passing the senate 92 to nothing. So when you hear about being liberal, it was american, and that same moment to the week, the endangered species was the big closing legislation of 73. We had the the Arab Oil Embargo oh pack of fear of gasoline prices need for energy going Energy Independence and a counterrevolution that developed immediately to Rachel Carson is some ralph nader ism environmentalism that had gone too far. It went so the right said that nixon become a new dealer and ill mention why they thought that. But you know, in and out of that counter swing to im about to tell you about was born the American Institute Heritage Foundation and Koch Brothers industry say the brothers you know all any Federalist Society they all are coming to save money they dont like the federal government regulate them its an anti federal Regulation Movement emerges after the Environmental Movement starts petering out in 73. Now, i had, instead of kennedy begin my book in 1945. I didnt want to. When i have people complain me, they see how fat my book is i know i could have begun it in 60 and gotten away with it. I would have been disingenuous. I would have been doing that to be a marketing of books. But their customers real history began in the days after World War Two, once hiroshima gets dropped, we talk about it as victory over japan. The wars ended and we celebrated. I would have been in the streets celebrating. Ive never criticized truman. His decision to drop the atomic bomb personally, but i never also criticized a lot of people. I write in my book that said, whoa, what does this mean to the planet . The great doctor, Albert Schweitzer won a nobel prize in man has has just written his doom. If this Nuclear Genie starts going around the world, oh my god. And then the then john of the new yorker and other started showing what radiation to the people in japan, skin melting horror shows of what are what happens with an atomic bomb. And there became an movement but the antinuke moog Nuclear Movement got fine tuned to being anti Nuclear Testing that there were where on one level policy people were American Atomic Energy commissioner deciding how do we stop other countries from getting Nuclear Bombs all great but there was a group of grassroots american citizens that became the first wave of the environmental that said stop blowing Nuclear Weapons up in nevada. From 1945 to 1992, the united detonated 1054 nuclear test. Oak, nevada boom, boom, boom, boom. Do you think people in nevada cared like im getting radiation now . They were doing like, get your atomic shaker in las vegas where you could see it snowing radio fall out. People were doing the atomic cocktails you know do the Nuclear Boogie woogie because. We were proud that we were monopoly from 1945 to 1959 where the only country in the world with Nuclear Weapons were at usa and russia gets the bomb and then its back and forth with the arms race. And meanwhile were testing testing and the planet suffers from it out of that antinuclear group comes a very funny coalition. The biggest leader is William Douglas, who i write about in the book, who became us. It was fdr, Supreme Court justice 37, douglas had rushed to say no nagasaki after he saw what it did. Hiroshima the Supreme Court justice said, dont drop one in nagasaki just as would go and climb the himalayan sand, become a buddhist Supreme Court justice, collecting buddhism his all season hero is Henry David Thoreau. You know who else was against the mom after first one was dropped on catholic moral reasons joseph kennedy, who gets a lot of bad for being a business guy. He wanted to get the pope involved and bishops involved, henry luce involved to make sure there wasnt a second bomb drop for moral reasons, but another one. So john f read part one and i glad the wars over, but immediately took to a named Norman Cousins head of the saturday review and Norman Cousins wrote the first book, big major called is obsolete due to Nuclear Weapons, a critical if you read it today its a pretty mild but nevertheless he was saying this is not something we should be its a big problem. Kennedy loved it. Jack kennedy, when you study like i have closely his career in the navy years beyond being the legitimate hero p. T. 109 was much more like joseph. Catch 22 Kurt Vonnegut kind of guy. He saw absurdity of war. He saw the absurdity of how a chain command things could go. And he was skeptical of the whole nuclear age. Yet he was an ardent cold warrior, another person opposed to atomic bomb was Rachel Carson. Or about Nuclear Testing. Rachel carson was from pennsylvania, a girl growing up on the banks of the Allegheny River in the allegheny guys was a glue. Factories around there, dirty air, dirty. Its a beautiful river in western pennsylvania. And she would go and collect pine cone cones and write about nature and her books. She put her first essay to get published in nicholas magazine and a magazine thing for kids, and she talks about the natural world, about the atmosphere. And her teachers started recognizing in her, you have a gift for science and nature and literature here and so she goes to a School Called chatham for Winter School women in pittsburgh area and decides she wants to be an ocean biologist or an ocean person and had never seen ocean even though she graduate from college she got a fellowship to woods hole massachusetts which is in walking distance from John F Kennedy home in hyannis port and woods hole. If you havent heard about it, was the place if you wanted to study marine life today here in la hoya, you have university of california at san diego with scripps or i live in texas. We have university of texas has, a Marine Center at port aransas on the gulf of mexico, where the university of miami is booming. And marine science. But the woods hole was where intellectuals win. It was like the advanced institute in princeton, where brainy yaks go to study. You would go there the woods hole and youd find a study the natural sea world. She started studying migratory patterns of eels cause lot of people do birds but not a there was no woman in the field of eels and they do have remarkable journeys, eels from africa all the to the interior rivers of pencil danger. And she started writing columns. The baltimore sun. She did an advanced degree in zoology at johns hopkins. She gets hired in World War Two to write marine scripts for radio about our shad populations are cod fish stocks and then fun pieces about sea urchins or ocean ocean observations, radio and pr kind thing . Before npr was born and she working for fdr adores the new deal. By 1946, shes writing a called conservation and action where worlds 51 First Federal bird reservations that Theodore Roosevelt created are todays us fish and wildlife refuge. Just you guys, you all here own 550 National Wildlife refuges. Theyre all around you here love them. This is government at its best. Its protecting species, protecting oasiss and we sometimes dont realize that this a great gift. We got this wildlife refuge, but she was just writing little booklets for them to, you know, tell if you went to go visit sonny bono. Thats all i wrote. She tell you what bird shed see there going on in that ecosystem . Great stuff . But got two clues about world war. Two being in government that worried her. One was the nuclear issue. And second, ddt because the other big advancement wasnt just the Manhattan Project and World War Two. Another thing that won the war, surely, is the bomb ddt, pesticides if you were young, John F Kennedy or Richard Nixon or Lyndon Johnson, anybody on the pacific and europe but it made a big difference in the pacific you would have been doused with ddt sprayed host and i would have to and you would have to it killed lice. It kills mosquitoes, it kills ticks. Its a miracle it helped us. We would take planes future environmentalist named Barry Commoner, who was a genius for World War Two, for our country, invented the device that would spray ddt proper, greatly administered over vast islands in the pacific. So our troops be attacked with malaria problem as Rachel Carson being in government working that us fish and wildlife beat particularly paul in maryland where we have a national you guys own a National Wildlife Research Center where we test our chemicals on waterways and airs to see what how it affects meaning, how it might affect soon and she knew ddt was toxic to fish and birds she had read reams of data document piled and so she decided was going to kind of be a whistle blower, wanted to go public with our Readers Digest. And they rejected they said, no way, why ddt was big business. It was bought by the Us Department of, agriculture, every farm the United States was being sprayed with pesticides. It was considered a it was as big a powerful the Chemical Industry as oil gas lobby today it was huge and so she got flummoxed and Rachel Carson instead wrote three c books. If none of you have read her c trilogy books about the sea. My favorite being called the sea around us. But i love all three. You can get them in a convenient library of america book one volume. I highly it nobody writes about Ocean Conservation the world of the ocean with the grace notes Rachel Carson as a literary person. So in my mind theres Henry David Thoreau and Rachel Carson and when you really getting into how to write about a natural area the it extent her writing is much more or more its like two levels advanced on a National Geographic writing or something. Its really special. And one of her big fans for the kennedy families, they loved her book strictly rose kennedy. Do you know John F Kennedy . His mother grew in concord, massachusetts, swimming picnicking and walden pond every day. The kennedy kids not learn to swim in the ocean. They learn to swim. Walden pond did you realize that John Kennedys mother made a mission to russia to investigate whether thoreaus collected works in the libraries in russia . Do you realize that her favorite book, beyond water, an essay by thro and walden was a book called cape cod. All about the outer cape. The outer cape. Her son, John F Kennedy, would sign as the Cape Cod National seashore in 1961 and in and when i say National Seashore skies, kennedy became president. We had one cape hatteras. Its hard are on coastal areas i if i were president in or jimmy carter was president he save a lot people say he saved this many acres alaska its Mountain Rock that you know heres a big you know what so im not criticizing im simply saying for the politics it bob great reporters here knows these politics kennedy actually got through seas shore real estate for public parks like cape cod, like padre island, texas, like point raised cattle of fauna. Moran we if you go there now, those are all John F Kennedy seashores because kennedy had red Rachel Carson is a fanatic the book they loved was a book under the sun book by Henry David Thoreau called, cape cod. That book was helped create Cape Cod National seashore that many decades after. His death and and in the midfifties the government came up with a report called our vanishing shorelines. And in that report set public beaches disappearing everybodys building condos or that wasnt the word but apartments hotels. Oh jersey is asia dredging and were going to have no open public seashore lands for the public to enjoy and in that movement seized on is is one big conservation thing so youve got this sea shore Conservation Action going in the fifties early sixties youve got the anti bomb stop testing in nevada people are getting sick and ddt and out of the ddt group a big thing happened say woman Marjorie Spock. How of you here have ever heard of dr. Benjamin spock. The baby doctor turn an antiwar protester. The baby dr. Benjamin sister Marjorie Spock was an organic farmer. She had advice part of suffolk county, new york, an organic farm head of her time. Today, theres whole foods. Every corner of any place you go. But she was mark wanted to market her only organic because she thought all these chemicals we putting in our foodstuffs wasnt good fair problem was they were blanket spraying ddt over her property are and so she claimed my right as organic farmers just been taken away from me constitution all right leave me alone. Its my land i want to grow organic produce. If any of you went to wall school or have a grandkid in law school, her think its a great idea. I had never i thought like, what is what do i own up above me . How many feet do i have to go when i am not in control . I mean its interesting just and so i dont i dont think its frivolous and it made it which way to the Supreme Court like it should have. And in the Supreme Court they voted Marjorie Spock down. She lost. But William Douglas grabbed on to it. And a dissent published in Readers Digest and everywhere. Thats the birth of environmental law he triggers the Environmental Movement with his dissent in and out by not only when gone to hike the himalayas and write a book it, but bill douglas was writing books called my wilderness. He wrote two books called my wilderness, where he tramped all around the country and maybe in washington, d. C. Bob, youre up there and others. You go the sea canal. You might meet the bus to bill douglas, but William Douglas hiked 186 miles down the whole scene because they were going to build a road their highway. He said its a scenic, cultural and history resource, but put it march 286 miles, because the Washington Post said the highway and he wrote the post said, come with me if you hike with me and you still want to build the highway, great. But if you let, me show you what you will destroy. And to the post editors credit, they went with them. They didnt do the whole 186 miles, but they least went with the justice to see ways. And they said, yeah, we got to come up with different here. We dont want to destroy this you know canal he won douglas mist he won his fight the post back and today its part of the National Park no road it got saved oh, man thats all douglas needed he became an environmental. I chuckle when i turn the tv and hear about supreme by clarence or conflicts of interest well bill douglas was a walking in conflict of interest. His office in the supreme was the clearing house. Anything environmental in the country before there was an epa. The epa is not created in 1970. There was nowhere go. If you had an environmental problem here in the in Rancho Mirage your palm springs and youre getting flummoxed not getting action in sacramento, you might send a postcard to douglas and hed respond and hed say, give me everything, every information. You cant people, these green grassroots groups, countries start sending douglas reams of their about whats going on local places. And douglas would farm it out to david brower at sierra club or howard zinn i saw at the wilderness society. And then douglas kept hiking and, hiking. He hike in in kentucky to stop a dam and he won. He hike bobby and Ethel Kennedy along the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State and no road he to the Buffalo River in Arkansas River where the protest so big people were putting barbed wire the river so canoes or kayakers would get entangled there were shootings on and theres bill douglas canoeing down the buffalo. Now i didnt see hes a great Supreme Court justice. Okay. Okay, you got it. Its telling you this is what what his life about that he didnt like lawyers or law. He was very mean to court. So these complicated, but not on the environmental issue. He was a believer in a deep way and he won. He showed the greens, get guts, get out there, protest and we can win. And we won the buffalo Richard Nixon saved the Buffalo River from being dammed. I can go on with douglass stance that all work he doesnt have a failure on these things he brings so much media to and he backs rachel who now after spock spock sends Rachel Carson. Heres all of the legal information douglas sends her every dirty document he could find on ddt, Chemical Industry. Douglas writes a friend in writing, i am going to bend the law against the corporation in favor of the environment. Im going to bend the law, the corporations. Well how do you feel about thats all thats got is i hes in that zone. You know do you think dr. Kings the only one protester in and dr. King, incidentally on ddt in particular on the nuclear test Martin Luther king jr said over and over again what good does it do to integrate the greenville lunch counter . I mean. Greenberg greensboro counter in north carolina, what good does it do to integrate a lunch counter if the milk youre drinking . Scott stadium, 90th because the fallout was across america the hard rain Barry Commoner name i casually mention at washington was collecting baby teeth samples showing kids exposed to radiation and who werent but. Rachel carson grabs all of the legal and then shes got all of her whistle blowers at us and Wildlife Research labs giving your all their anti ddt info. And she sits down and writes in the late fifties, silent spring, a book that comes out in 1962. And its a its a one book revolution with douglas spurring it on because in that. Right. Well, first up, Rachel Carson had cancer breast cancer. She was writing it. She lost all of hair going through radiation treatments. She was going to be dead soon and was working against the clock to get her writing done when it gets done. January 60. Bill douglas says, ill get the kennedys on board. You. Bill douglas was really close. The Kennedy Family, i cant tell you how close he took. Bobby kennedy, the attorney, as a boy, hiking all in siberia to see siberia. They want hiked all over siberia. Bobby kennedy, robert kennedy. And i think one up today and the original Robert F Kennedy and douglas when i was siberian Bobby Kennedy Ethel Kennedy told me bobby got high fever, really high like 104 in a middle of the bank of siberia, sweating sick. They were looking for so they couldnt find a penicillin or any kind of medicine or what can help them. And douglas, being a man of darwin, put on his backpack and said, youre sick, bobby. This is where we part company and continued on his like and left bobby to his own fate his own darwinian fate ethel told me she wouldnt talk to bill douglas for about five years. She was so that he left her husband in that state. Bobby kennedy loved it like he came back. All bill me, you know, kind of macho thing. But but he never it against him. But she did. The point is, douglas told rachel, were going to do this, man. Youre going to be under attack. We got your back. Her articles get published in the new yorker in june of 62. Cause this holy hell. Because the Chemical Industry is not just about getting rid of ddt, theyre seeing this as a trick to do federal regulation on any chemical. And what are you dumping . Rivers where is your Chemical Waste going . This is the big take down. So they got to take carson down. They call her every name in the book, particularly sexual smears, because she had never married a spinster or bob i wont even say under so ugly. It was intense and. Kennedy to his credit as a podium when asked by press, he said, oh, yeah i read miss carson and were going to get were going to get to the results of, her miss ms. Carsons book and all. And were going find out im going to put a panel together. He puts a top group of panel mittee types, you know, boom, what is carson right . Or is the chemical right . Carson right. And that and the ddt wars com it goes on for ten years with big chemical. No were we cant lose this battle Rachel Carson dies in 64 kennedys dead in 63. The ddt battle doesnt end on 1972. And you know whos the one who finally abolished us using ddt in the us . Richard nixon he didnt want, but his first epa head, William Ruckelshaus stood up really strong and told nixon, you me had ap. I looked at all this stuff and we cant use it anymore. And nixon said that he was really livid about it. Nixon to be honest, to be fair, he did it. He was angry because im going to lose the ranchers, you know, im going to lose the you. His worry politically with the cost one his side but he did it. Nixon and after that revolution kicks in and the big key for kennedy had picked command stuart udall as secretary of interior, our finest during these years we get things like canyonlands National Park created in utah big battle, the north cascades in Washington State National Park, california, ground zero. In my book on a lot of this stuff for example the battle of bodega bay i dont know how you care or think about Nuclear Power because it depends on my mood sometimes but in i understand that the complications of all of that with anything nuclear but i will tell you what shot it down really it was that the pacific your electric pacific youre the California Electric Company wanted to build the worlds biggest atom campus on on bodega Bay California on the san andreas. Bonehead. They could have found so many other sites and they decided to build it right on the ocean along where they would hit the fault line and and they and the public went nuts. The sierra club nuts. But but suddenly udall and everybody says no, they again, its the victories of this third wave. They are winning. Theyre winning battles they might have a setback like in a Supreme Court, but then they win and theyre tenacious and. Its coming from all walks of life before do away with kennedy. Let me tell you that, kennedy did one of the great ecological events in world history, the nuclear ban treaty. You know how we stopped weapons in nevada . Its because kennedy he sent norman. First off, kennedy sent Norman Cousins on this fringe writer who wrote when was in the military uniform that weapons with Nuclear Weapons are a problem he sends secret behind cia state defenses back Norman Cousins to the pope as a fig leaf of where hes headed and then go meet khrushchev. Its a third party. Diplomas of extraordinary kinds cousins starts brokering a deal for a Nuclear Test Ban after the cuban missile crisis. And kennedy, starting with a great speech at american university. But in the summer of 63 said no signed a deal with russia and britain no more atmospheric or underwater testing russia today cannot blow up Nuclear Weapons and test them okay there because of kennedys treaty now it did allow underground its another story but the point is kennedy something in the Foreign Policy cold realm thats meaningful. And ted, a speechwriter, said its the greatest. Kennedy saw it as his greatest achievement, not the moon going the moon. And thats his thought. He thought kennedy that stopping the testing Nuclear Weapons was his greatest achievement. Now Lyndon Johnson comes in the if you want to call them the old new dealers or the bill douglas radicals or whatever you want to call them a proto environmentalist often used today. But they were worried about is Lyndon Johnson because lyndon had fought the big sea short battle in texas over padre island. Lyndon johnson wanted to it with condos and hotels and so they were of lyndon. On the other hand, he loved fdr and he loved Theodore Roosevelt. Hes married to lady bird. And from 63 to the end of proxy, Lyndon Johnson was a first rate concern. Ovation president problem with johnson is he thought conservation as america saving america the beautiful Lyndon Johnson for example signs the wild and scenic river act stopping beautiful rivers from being dammed. Today we all own these increase wild and Scenic Rivers that werent room Castle Lyndon he did the if you go the appalachian trail system or the Pacific Crest trail out here Lyndon Johnson he did the wilderness act but thats the wilderness act. You look at a map, youll see big parts of wilderness a million acres where no roads allowed to be built. The wilderness act was born in 1935 in our first wilderness. This unit is, kings canyon, parts of kings canyon National Park here in california, and thats harold ickes doing and ansel adams, they got to fdr, the thing eleanor used to say to environmental eleanor said spring pictures if you show franklin a beautiful landscape, hell say, save it. She was so right these guys brought all these beautiful pictures and they wanted over a million acres with no roads, nothing, a primitive wilderness in that sierra. And well, the great lines ever fdr looked at. The picture said, oh, my god, because loved it. This was early as on since fdr got his gene. You saw what a young genius this guy was to the camera. And he said, you know, the thing is, guys, ill never be able to see it. Meaning im in a wheelchair if i block it off. No roads, visitor centers, how will i ever see all these beautiful sites youre showing me. What do you say to that . And he said. Oh, well. And then he signed it. And that started the wilderness movement. And by 64, Lyndon Johnson signs. The wilderness act puts 9. 1 million acres of america aside for no roads. Roads bring logging, road, spring, electricity roads bring in crews encourage from civilization and you can never get man out of nature. Theres something in the water that did. Theres something flying overhead. Its kind of frontier wilderness. But we do. And weve got big parcels of johnson, lady bird, you all must know, wildflowers, beautiful nation. She came out here, the road, a big sir and a ceremony have scenic roads without billboards along Pacific Coast highway. You know, she went with stuart udall down the Rio Grande River at big bend. She went rafting whitewater. Rafting in the snake river and all in idaho on and on. She is our conservation beautification. She wanted to call it environmentalism. And she said lyndon boys wouldnt let me. They they wanted the word beautification. And she said, i hate it. It sounds like a mortician or something. Putting lipstick on a corpse or something. She didnt like it, but she got stuck with the term beautification. A river mental was starting to be seen as a campus left buzz. Word and replacing ecology. But they did good. They good work and its unfortunate. Vietnam has clouded we have celebrated linda and on civil rights and headstart and mpr or apb. He was a very good conservation president and she the amazing first lady, nixon you might say. How is nixon fit in . Nixon ran in 1968. President , you all that california you got to know about the environment a little bit no matter what you think out here, its everywhere. Your people are doing it. But do you realize that nixon asking, getting asked questions he cant answer. Do you realize that nixon hires john erlichman, who goes to prison for watergate . Most known who was a land water lawyer from seattle. And nixon went up there and went boating with him once and came back and said, you know, erlichman is really hes making money on nimby, not on my backyard rich people not wanting an aluminum factory next to them. Theyd hire higher erlichman firm and win. And so he, the de facto environmentalist for nixon, the sierra club, calls him a cover art green. However, he thought on other issues he in with the environmental crowd erlichman and he goes to the white house in to be fair to nixon hes president days just day. I think its eight days and the Santa Barbara oil spill happens now. Television color, the nightly news and seven you know cronkite and all went color 67 this is january 69 and nixons not even his office practically and the whole a tvs showing birds go back to the organization in Santa Barbara get the oil out do the birds trapped in oil the paradise Santa Barbara despoiled wealthy republican donors. Nixon, who lived along the coast to california. Nixon letters do something and nixon blew. He had an interior secretary hickel hickel who told him the exact right thing. Hickel he said dont minimize it. Dont tell people how bad it is, do minimize because its bad and just say its bad and well blame johnson whoever and so nixon did and he came on and did it. But he wasnt sure how to play environmentalism. Then the summer of 69, when hes ready to celebrate, neil on the moon, nixon talking to the astronauts time magazines putting Cuyahoga River on fire in ohio and the rouge river on fire. That means, guys, you take a match and put it in. It goes down and this starts talking about how sick our rivers are. Remember, theres no epa, okay . You got no clean water act yet. And and and so thats going on and Gaylord Nelson, senator from the father of Apostle Islands National Park the five that the conceptual your birthday 1970 our first earth day he goes and and nelson comes up with the idea of a teach in for earth day the environment now. Ive read all these books and i after read earth day books first one the whole country done it but i saw they had offices everywhere. How does somebody in november have no offices and in april has offices everywhere for an earth day . Follow the money. Right. Where did that money come from . And he believe where all comes from. Not some. A bit. A hunk, a grant. Its not bill douglas. He was always pretty poor. It comes from ruther of the united automobile workers. Ruther funds earth day because big labor, big environment were intended because ruther, who dies days after earth in a weird plane crash with his wife mae ruther set blue collar workers. We cant go your ceremony. I want the local detroit, michigan, ohio, indiana, where our workers are. We want clean lakes, fishing, hunting beaches, local we want we want to clean. So he was a real environmentalist ruther. Youre starting to see my times what time do i have to end . Im a college lecturer. Guys, you got to forgive me. We go on 2 minutes. The the the key here then becomes with that earth day. Now nixon is starting to say, holy god, this earth day is really growing. Ruth, theres paying for everything this things got. Im kidding. I dont want to be the. But nixon was just paranoid to not being the the the polluter. And he does something smart. He makes a deal. Erlichman he says to john erlichman, youre youre a greenie and youre in with these guys. I will sign with you guys produce with democrats if its got Scoop Jacksons office does it i will not muskie muskie ed muskie. Maine has anything to do with it. Im im off. So erlichman, this is the triumph of the seattle people erlichman and Scoop Jacksons teams get together and they they cobble nepa, national, environmental policy act. If you dont about nepa, youre living it. This lie wouldnt have been built without nepa. Nepa signed by nixon first 1970, and sam clemente, california, at the western house before the football games. Come on. Shocking press gaggle following him. He nepa which makes environmental statements for construction mandatory Real Estate Commercial Development blah blah blah blah blah blah. What does that do, guys . When sign nepa it guarantees law to be a boom industry. I asked my students at Rice University if theyre not majoring in environment to go work for the sierra club or audubon. So a lot of times theyre getting hired by exxonmobil to be an environmentalist making Environmental Impact statements, but it creates environmental, which is going to lead us to where the fourth waves coming with climate change. And i dwindling time. I will tell you earth day. Nixon decides split the difference. He gives interior staff the day off to teach people about earth. He plants tree on the white house with pat nixon good photo op so he did something Tree Planting legit and hires the fbi do deep surveillance on the earth day headquarters in the and protesters. Nixon says theyre pinko commies. Im worried that this a ruthless socialist plot and its aim to make me look bad and so erlichman and ruckelshaus people go and the one of the funnier memos we historians read other peoples mail for a living one of the funniest letters is with erlichman and ruckelshaus. Erlichman and Pete Mccloskey out here in california, a former republican moderate environmental congressman. Hes theyre good friends, erlichman and pete. And he says pete, you wont believe what the fbi has come up with. There was nothing nefarious. It was some girls not wearing bras. There was a little of smooching going on under trees. Were some dogs running their. He said its the most benign surveillance report theyve ever seen. There die. But he tells mccluskey. But now i know you may find this funny, but ive got to go tell the boss this, you know, and and nixons like after he survives earth day in the summer of 1970, he sees environments a winning issue. He had made it a of his 1970 state of the union i think its a third of the speech is on the environment by nixon 70 summer of 70. He creates the Environmental Protection out of the white house with help of Scoop Jackson and john dingell on the democratic side. But they get together, they get the language, they streamline it all and opens the doors. December 70, William Ruckelshaus becomes the first head of the epa, and hes a bad cop, im telling you. Ruckelshaus knew. And if we should name, the epa, the ruckelshaus building was the most honest Public Servants ever encountered. And i got to know them well. I did his oral histories for university of washington, Washington State. Ruckelshaus had the hard job. You guys end this. You guys know how brown versus topeka. It wasnt just about the legislation and separate but equal no good. Now got to integrate the schools. What is . The whole civil rights movement. Its about making the people to brown you go to little rock in 57. Are you complying going to the brown decision . You go to France Elementary School and orleans with ruby bridges. Are you complying king ruckelshaus is the burn telling polluting companies extraction, industries, Chemical Industries . Were busting you. The feds are busting you. Youre not applying youre following epa standards or nepa or the clean act, which nixon signed in 1970 and soon to be clean water act of 1972. And so by the time nixon leaves, that was the end of a revolution was bipartisan in spirit. It had republicans nixon, ruckelshaus, russell, a guy named russell train who helped the World Wildlife fund, a republican side. John salley, republican congressman mccloskey. It had frank church in in Gaylord Nelson in real environment. Well, senators have Supreme Court justice it had anti nuke people like Coretta Scott dr. King, Bobby Kennedy was a poster boy for and Scenic Rivers going around to rafting with the Kennedy Family to save our rivers and dams which once were popular became unpopular. The big showdown was grand canyon and the sierra club thanks to david brower would take out full page ads in the New York Times that said, would you flood the 16th chapel and that once that was another environmental victory. Were waiting for the fourth wave right now, which has to be global. Its going to start by generation z and. The baby boomers do not need to feel bad by infusing our with terms like earth science, earth day, studying and endangered species. We feel like were losing, but weve educated the planet that we need planetary. Conservation action. I thought when al gore did Inconvenient Truth that might be going on, hes had about seven republican senators. Alas, were not there yet. But there will be a new one in california, very may be the leader of the fourth wave because of their rules on getting fossil fuels with no selling of and capitalism and one on gun violence in america. A couple more call in shows as well. We are pleased to be joined by author, journalist and Prager University founder, dennis prager. Welcome back to the book tv set. Im going to ask you a question i do not ask many people when i start an interview, what is on your mind these days