File:USC Daily Trojan Sen Nelson speech day after first Earth Day .jpg: Difference between revisions

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SJS / GreenPolicy360 Siterunner:

The USC student newspaper headline is a bit of hyperbole and understatement. The Senator wasn't a 'Teach-in originator... responsible for the first Environmental Teach-In'.

Senator Nelson in cooperation with our student advisers and organizers became the originators of the first 'Earth Day teach-in'. On April 22nd, 1970, we launched Earth Day, then year in, year out, successive annual Earth Days continued as an environmental era was created and shaped.

The Genius of Earth Day: How a 1970 Teach-In Unexpectedly Helped to Plant the Seeds of Earth Day and the First Green Generation

Let's revisit 1969 and 1970 as student activism became a peace and environmental movement across the college campuses of the U.S. As a co-founder of the Vietnam Moratorium Committee and coordinator of anti-war activities on college campuses in California, I found myself overwhelmed, working as a student activist to organize at my own campus of the University of Southern California and eventually internationally.

USC in the 1960s became a center of activism and our organizing took us from opposition to nuclear weapons, war and international conflict to environmental security and political reform. Student "teach-ins" were popular tools for outreach and we began organizing to build awareness and support for the first generation of environmental laws.

Our teach-in model with Senator Gaylord Nelson's proposal was a first wave of what became continued teach-ins and educational efforts that acted to make our environmental priorities become reality.

With Congressman George Brown's encouragement and Senator Nelson's active support, students launched environmental teach-ins across the country every year, becoming April 22nd "Earth Days".

We didn't call the first national teach-in Earth Day, but that's what it was -- momentous and magic.

At USC it was appropriate to hear Senator Nelson speak to us on the first day after our first Earth "teach-in" at SC and across the U.S. and nations of the world... a planetary celebration, a growing activist movement.

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Senator Gaylord Nelson:

"I am convinced that the same concern the youth of this nation took in changing this nation's priorities on the war in Vietnam and on civil rights can be shown for the problems of the environment... Successful teach-ins on all campuses on the same day will have a dramatic impact on the environmental conscience of the nation. They will be immensely effective as an educational effort in arousing public opinion concerning necessary steps to protect our environment and establish quality on a par with quantity as a goal of American life."

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With a Special Tip of the Green Hat to a Member of Congress Who Helped Us Organize Nationwide …

A Political Voice from East Los Angeles Acts to Push the US Congress and Drafts the First National Climate Policy and Program

• http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/George_E._Brown_Jr

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January 1969

Beginnings of the modern environmental movement...

A Vision of the Home Planet as Never Before Seen

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/PlanetCitizen

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Planet_Citizens

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Apollo_8,_Life_Jan10,1969.png

Waving the Earth Day Flag ...

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day

An Environmental Era

Ripples of an 'Earth Day Flag'

Environmental movement

California out in front in a Green future

Nearby USC in Pasadena, JPL/NASA with many USC, UCLA and Caltech taught engineers, a key component in continued California environmental leadership ...

"18 Earth science missions in space, supported by aircraft, ships and ground observations, measure aspects of the environment that touch the lives of every person around the world."

Earth Right Now

"Earth Day Is Everyday at NASA"

• http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow

• www.climate.nasa.gov

• climate.jpl.nasa.gov

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