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"If we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse student energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force the issue onto the national political agenda," Senator Bill Nelson (D-WI) said after one of his 1969 trips to California.

Earth Day, 2020

50 Years On

How far we've come, how far we have to go

LA Times, 2020: On an August day in 1969, Sen. Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat from Wisconsin, was in Santa Barbara inspecting what he later described as “that awful oil spill” and “puzzling about what could be done to bring public opinion to bear on the lethargic political community.” Over the next month he hatched a plan. Teach-ins — sit-ins that offered lessons about specific topics — were the rage in the activist 1960s, and Nelson wondered what might happen if the whole country engaged in a teach-in on how human activity imperiled the natural world. Thus Earth Day was born, and 50 years ago today some 20 million people — a tenth of the U.S. population — gathered at thousands of local events, propelling concerns about the environment onto the national agenda, where it’s been ever since.

• https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-22/earth-day-50th-anniversary-oil-spill

In California, from oil spills and smog so thick you couldn't see the sky

A green generation acts to create an environmental movement demanding change

GreenPolicy360 Siterunner --

Earth Day Memories on the 50th Anniversary

Moratorium Teach-ins to Earth Day, 1969-70

April 1970 at USC

How does the first Earth Day Teach-in coordinator Denis Hayes, in 2020, describe the positive impacts of Earth Day --

• https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/in-2020-earth-day-will-be-nov-3/

• https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-50-years-on-qa-with-denis-hayes-coordinator-of-the-first-earth-day/

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