Wild Wisconsin - Off the Record

Earth Day was founded by Wisconsin’s very own Gaylord Nelson. Then a senator, and former Wisconsin governor, Nelson had a simple idea for a day of awareness for the planet.

The year was 1970. Gas was cheap. There were no regulations like the Clean Air Act or the Clean Water Act to keep factories from polluting our air, land, and water. A rising consciousness after several environmental disasters had the country buzzing with a desire to do more.

His idea took off, and millions joined in across the country. Today, Earth Day is celebrated by more than a billion people around the globe.

Nelson’s daughter, Tia, is paving the way for his legacy to live on through her environmental advocacy. She is the managing director on climate at the Outrider Foundation. In this episode, she sheds light on her father’s work, what Earth Day means to her and how you can get involved.

Show Notes

Earth Day was founded by Wisconsin’s very own Gaylord Nelson. Then a senator, and former Wisconsin governor, Nelson had a simple idea for a day of awareness for the planet. 
 
The year was 1970. Gas was cheap. There were no regulations like the Clean Air Act or the Clean Water Act to keep factories from polluting our air, land, and water. A rising consciousness after several environmental disasters had the country buzzing with a desire to do more.
 
His idea took off, and millions joined in across the country. Today, Earth Day is celebrated by more than a billion people around the globe.
 
Nelson’s daughter, Tia, is paving the way for his legacy to live on through her environmental advocacy. She is the managing director on climate at the Outrider Foundation. In this episode, she sheds light on her father’s work, what Earth Day means to her and how you can get involved.

Learn more about Nelson’s legacy in the spring issue of Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine: https://dnr.wi.gov/wnrmag/
 
Learn more about Outrider Foundation at https://outrider.org/features/earth-day-film/
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TRANSCRIPT
Announcer: [00:00:00] Welcome to Wisconsin DNRs Wild Wisconsin - Off The Record podcast, information straight from the source.

Katie Grant: [00:00:12] Welcome back to another episode of Wild Wisconsin - Off The Record. I'm your host, DNRs digital media coordinator, Katie Grant. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. That's 50 years of living, changing and advancing. In 1970 a gallon of gas was 36 cents. The Beatles released, "Let it be" and then later broke up and a quarter would get you a dozen eggs. 

It was also the year of the very first Earth Day founded by former Wisconsin governor Gaylord Nelson. It was a time when factories pumped pollutants into the air, lakes and rivers with few repercussions. Gas guzzling cars ruled the roads. Before 1970 there was no EPA, no Clean Air Act, and no Clean Water Act.

Then a senator, Gaylord Nelson, had an idea to raise awareness about air and water pollution. His idea took off and on the first Earth Day in 1970 millions of Americans participated in rallies, marches and teach-ins for environmental education across the country. Earth Day catalyzed a movement in the United States that founded the Environmental Protection Agency and ignited a spirit of stewardship that has driven progress for five decades.

Today, Earth Day is celebrated around the world with billions of people participating in their own way. Although Gaylord Nelson passed away in 2005, his legacy lives on through his daughter, Tia, who was 14 at the time of the first Earth Day. She has since followed in her father's environmental protection footsteps.

Today, Tia Nelson is the managing director on climate for the Outrider Foundation. She is internationally recognized as a champion for environmental stewardship and climate change. Before the Safer at Home order, we spoke with Tia in early March to hear more about her father's life work, what Earth Day means to her and how you can get involved.

Just because most of us are at home doesn't mean you can't celebrate Earth Day this year as we all do what we can to slow the spread of COVID-19, the DNR encourages you to celebrate 50 years of Earth Day close to home. Be sure to practice social distancing if you're out in the community. 

At the Wisconsin DNR, we embrace Earth Day 365. For us, every day is Earth Day. Sit back and listen in to how a Wisconsin senator helped establish Earth Day 50 years ago and how his daughter keeps his memory alive today. 

Tia Nelson: [00:02:37] My name is Tia Nelson. I'm managing director for the climate change program at the Outrider Foundation. We seek to educate, engage, and inspire action on big global challenges like climate change, help people understand the risks, but importantly also help them understand the opportunities to be a part of the solution.

Katie Grant: [00:03:00] Fantastic. So you could be doing anything in the world. Why are you so passionate about the environment? 

Tia Nelson: [00:03:07] I have always had a love of nature. I spent a lot of time in the outdoors as a child. I went on to study wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin. I had wanted to be a veterinarian, but I'm pretty severely dyslexic, and so I struggled in school and once I found out that veterinarians had to go to school as long as doctors did, I figured that wasn't the best path for me.

And I had the real privilege to study under, uh Joe Hickey, uh, who had done really important early work on how DDT was thinning, uh, eggshells and impairing, uh, the reproduction of bird species, especially, uh, predators, um, in Wisconsin and across the country. It was a big inspiration to my father who then went on to introduce the first bill to ban the use of DDT.

So I was, uh, influenced, um, by great professors like Joe Hickey, uh, Orin, Ronstead, uh, Bob McCabe. Um, Bob was Dean of the Wildlife Ecology school. 

When I, uh, started attending the university and he actually inscribed, uh, and gave to my father the first day that my father was sworn in as governor, uh, a inscribed first edition copy of the Sand County Almanac with a beautiful inscription in it. I haven't here on my desk, um saying, um, "with and in between the lines of this book, you shall find great wisdom." 

Um, so I guess that's a long way of saying that, uh, nature was imbued in me as a child just as it was for my father, and I just seem to gravitate to the issue naturally and studied it in school and went on to work in the Capitol.

I worked for the DNR as a fisheries technician summertimes while I was in college. It was a great job. Um, it's always been my life's work and my passion. 

Katie Grant: [00:05:07] Yeah. Did you ever feel pressure to work in the environmental space or you just knew it was what you wanted to do? 

Tia Nelson: [00:05:13] I just did it. It just was me. It was just a part of me and, uh, a keen interest of mine from a very young age.

Uh, it must have obviously been influenced by my father and his work. Um, but I don't remember an epiphany moment. Um, it simply was imbued in me from a very early age, and it wasn't something that I honestly gave a lot of thought to. It was just who I was. 

Katie Grant: [00:05:43] Tell us a little bit about your father's legacy. For anyone who doesn't know, why is he so important to Wisconsin and Earth Day in general? 

Tia Nelson: [00:05:50] Well, my father grew up in a small town called Clear Lake in Polk County in northwestern Wisconsin. Not far from the St. Croix River where he camped and fished and canoed and his experiences in nature as a child had a big influence on him.

The places his father took him, uh, the St. Croix, uh, which I just mentioned. Also, they visited the Apostle Islands. It's interesting for me to reflect on the fact that those childhood experiences in nature here in these magnificent, uh, natural landscapes in Wisconsin became inspiration for him once he was elected to office.

And he served in the state senate for 10 years. He became governor when I was two. In 1958, he was elected and he became known pretty quickly as across the country as the conservation governor, principally because of a bold initiative that he put forward to tax uh, put a penny, a pack tax on cigarettes to fund the Outdoor Recreation Action Program --known by the acronym OREP -- uh, to fund, uh, the protection, uh, of public recreation lands for the citizens of Wisconsin, and to create opportunities for, uh, fishing and hunting and recreating.

 And that program was wildly popular and, uh, drew a lot of national attention, the National Boating Magazine, um, in I think around 1960, um, their front page was "All Eyes on Wisconsin" with a picture of the state of Wisconsin. And my, an image of my father overlaid and a story about how the, the great, uh, conservation innovation that was taking place in Wisconsin.

So that was my father's, um, early efforts as governor, he took that experience and the popularity of that program, which is now known as the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund, named after my father and Republican governor Warren Knowles, who succeeded my father when my father was elected to the senate. Um, uh, so Wisconsin's had a long bipartisan tradition of support for those types of initiatives.

The OREP program was wildly popular, um, to members of both parties. My father went off to Washington as the United States senator. He took with him a scrapbook of all the good press that he'd gotten for, uh, pushing, uh, conservation and outdoor recreation, uh, agenda as governor in Wisconsin. And, uh, he managed using that, good press that he'd received here in Wisconsin to convince President John F. Kennedy to do a conservation tour. My father was looking for a way to get politicians to wake up to the fact that the, uh, citizens, uh, were eager and interested in, uh, passing laws that protected our rights to breathe clean air and drink clean water and, uh, protect, uh, outdoor recreation areas. 

The conservation tour failed to accomplish what my father had hoped. Um, indeed, it was cut short after a few stops, as I recall. Um, and, um, sadly, President Kennedy was assassinated several months after that conservation tour, and it was between 1963 and 1969 my father continuing to push and talk about the environmental challenges of our time. And to try to think of an idea that might galvanize, um, uh, the people and, uh, shake as my father said, shake the political establishment out of their lethargy, um, and, uh, step up to address the big environmental challenges of our time.

Keep in mind that Lake Eerie was so polluted at the time, um, that it had burned for days. Um, and, uh, today you can, uh, fish some good walleye out of there. 

Katie Grant: [00:10:15] Right. Right. Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old, uh, Swedish environmental activist has gained international recognition for her climate strikes. She's also known for, having said "adults keep saying we owe it to the young people to give them hope, but I don't want your hope. I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to act as if the house, house is on fire because it is." 

How does it make you feel to see her and other young activists who are leading the environmentalist fight? And do you think they fit with your father's legacy? 

Tia Nelson: [00:10:48] Yes, they certainly do.

It's really, the story of Greta Thunberg is, um, a really inspiring one, and it is one that I reflect on quite often for the following reason. It would have been impossible for Greta to imagine when she was sitting alone protesting in front of the Swedish parliament that that simple act of defiance would launch the global youth movement just as Rosa Parks could not have known that that simple act of defiance saying no to that bus driver when he demanded she moved to the back of the bus, she simply quietly said one word, no. It changed the course of history. 

Just as my father could never have known that the simple idea of setting aside a day to teach on the environment on April 22nd, 1970, would launch the environmental movement, propel the environmental movement forward in these unimaginable ways.

Keep in mind there was no Environmental Protection Agency. Uh, it was signed into law by a Republican president, Richard Nixon. Um, some months after the first Earth Day, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, uh, Endangered Species Act, a whole slew of laws that we take for granted today, passed that first decade after Earth Day. 

More environmental laws were passed, um, in the decade that followed that first Earth Day than any other time in American history. And so Greta's story is inspiring to me and the way that Rosa Parks story is inspiring in the way that my father's story is inspiring. These were individuals who had a set of values and cared passionately about something, and they took action and they kept at it and they changed the course of history. It demonstrates to me the power of individual action to inspire others to become involved and be a part of the solution. And that to me is, is incredibly inspiring. Earth Day was successful beyond my father's wildest dreams. He never could have imagined that 20 million people would gather on that day or that 50 years later we would be celebrating his legacy in this way.

Katie Grant: [00:13:20] Right. 

Tia Nelson: [00:13:20] And I, and, and I, I think that, that people on the 100th anniversary of Earth Day, uh, will be saying the same thing about Greta Thunberg and the youth activists around the world who have done exactly what my father had hoped youth would do and youth did do that first Earth Day. It shook up the establishment and made them pay attention.

Katie Grant: [00:13:45] Right, right. You've mentioned in past interviews that you have a kind of fuzzy memory when it comes to what you were doing on that first Earth Day. As you got older, though. Do you recall any of your father's continuing work with regard to Earth Day? 

Tia Nelson: [00:14:02] Um, yes. Well, I, I was almost 14 when the first Earth Day occurred and I did not remember what I was doing.

I, of course, get asked this question quite often. I, you know, was tempted to make up a good story, but I thought better of it. Uh, the way I learned that I was cleaning up trash at my junior high school is I was doing a talk show, a radio talk show, and one of my, uh, um, friends from junior high called and said, you were with me, we were picking up trash. 

So, um, but as the years, um, ensued, uh, I think it really dawned on me the significance of Earth Day on the 20th anniversary. I was on the Washington Mall with my father for the 20th anniversary. That was a magnificently large, um, and significant anniversary event. And it was pretty obvious that this would be a big, and enduring, um, uh, thing for a long time, uh, to come.

My father worked tirelessly and he also he, he felt very, uh, drawn and very duty-bound to speak to youth. And he accepted the smallest school. If the kids wrote him a letter and asked him to come speak to them about the issues, the environment, he went. Um, he saw great promise in our youth. He knew that, uh, it were, that it was the young people in 1970 that, uh, made such a big difference, uh, in, in the success of that event.

And so he would give speeches to big audiences. He would give talks to little schools. Uh, he was tireless in his advocacy, outreach and, um, public efforts to engage people because he saw the power, uh, of, um, doing that. And so, um, he was, uh, tireless, and in, in delivering that message and traveling around, giving talks, visiting schools, giving media interviews and doing everything he could to continue to advance the cause.

Katie Grant: [00:16:20] When you spoke with us, uh, for our article in the Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine, you said one of the reasons the first Earth Day was so successful was because of the way it grew organically at the local level, rather than being planned from the top down. Why do you think the simplistic approach worked in his, kind of made it work for the last 50 years? 

Tia Nelson: [00:16:40] If you look at the first Earth Day, there were literally thousands of organizers in, um, communities across the country. My father did not prescribe a specific agenda. He didn't tell him what issues they should be talking about. He encouraged people to think about what they cared about, where they lived, what the challenges, the environmental challenges, quality of life challenges, were, wherever they lived, uh, whether it was in, uh, the city or the countryside. 

Um, and people responded, I think if you look at Adam Rome's book, he interviewed over 140 people, um, dozens and dozens and dozens of these local organizers. And one thing that's obvious is by not prescribing what the agenda was and what the issues were and how my father, uh, trying to prescribe from Washington what people were supposed to do, but rather letting them identify their priorities and values, um, uh, where, where they lived, um, and worked, uh, and raised their families.

Um, that was very powerful. So some people planted trees, some people picked up trash, some people protested, some people had concerts. I have images of the, uh, Earth Day, uh, on State Street. State Street was closed and, uh, an entomologist and in, you know, a professor of insects, uh, set up a booth. A rather shabby looking one at that, uh, with information about the importance of insects as pollinators.

Um, my point is, uh, whether it was entomologists educating people on the importance of bees as a pollinator, uh, or, uh, uh, Girl Scout troop picking up trash and in their local neighborhood or another group, um, planting trees, um, people felt empowered to take action in a way that was meaningful to them.

And in, in not trying to control what people did and how they did it and how they messaged around it, um, turned out to be really, uh, uh, a stroke of genius on my father's part. 

Katie Grant: [00:19:07] For sure. For sure. So over the years, I'm sure you have participated in Earth Day and a lot of different ways, uh, do you have any particularly memorable ways that you have celebrated it?

Tia Nelson: [00:19:20] Um, well, they're all meaningful to me. It's always been important for me to honor my father and my own, uh, life's work on Earth Day. It's particularly been important to me to, uh, tell his story to kids um, so that they understand that my father was just a little boy from a little town, um, in Wisconsin, and he grew up to change the world in unimaginable ways, and I want kids to know they have that power, too.

Um, so I have always done as much as I can, uh, uh, some local events, media events, um, uh, try to talk to, uh, schoolkids, uh. This year is different though. This year I have a spreadsheet with, gosh, close to 40, um, appearances, interviews, podcasts, like the one we're doing now. Um. Uh, I'm very proud, very excited that we'll be debuting a, uh, uh, film, uh, at Earth X, the largest environmental film fest in the United States in Dallas, Texas on Earth... on the eve of Earth Day.

We'll be opening that, uh, Earth X event. Uh, we will be closing out the Smithsonian's Earth Optimism event on April 25th. Uh, the day the mall or a mall event will occur. We've been invited to show at Tribeca Film Fest, uh, in New York and are still trying to figure out whether we can do all of these things in, in the short timeframe of a week.

Uh, I will be showing the film at the University of Wisconsin Nelson.. Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies on Monday, April 20th. Uh, and what's exciting to me about the film is I recruited the youth activists Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, and Bob Inglis, the former Republican congressman, founder of a group called RepublicEN.

Uh, the two of them have joined me, uh, in this film to honor my father and in a call to action to people today to come together and address the biggest environmental challenge of our time, which is climate change. And that, uh, Bob and Varshini, uh, eh, are joining me and talking about the need for a multigenerational bi-partisan socially just movement to address climate change is just a source of enormous excitement and pride for me. So I'll be showing that film around the country. Uh, I will be doing more podcasts, more media interviews. Um, I'll be keynoting, uh, after Earth Day at the annual meeting of the United Church of Christ, uh, at the Midwest Renewable Energy fair up in Custer, Wisconsin. Um, I, I'll, I'll, I'll be tired by the time it's all done, but it's, uh, um, it's a good challenge to have and I just, I couldn't be more grateful or excited to have the opportunity to tell my father's story, the story of other activists today. Um, and to encourage people to get involved and, um, be a part of, uh, building a brighter future.

Katie Grant: [00:22:40] At what point did you and your family really start getting the sense that Earth Day had become something special? And did you guys ever discuss how big of a deal it had become?

Tia Nelson: [00:22:51] Um, well, sure. I talked to my brothers about it, uh, on a regular basis. I'm updating them on the stuff I'm involved in, uh, here.

But, uh, as I mentioned a little earlier in our interview, I think it probably first dawned on me, what a big deal it was on, uh, probably the 10th or the 20th anniversary. Um, that it was clearly going to be an enduring, um, event, uh, in a part of an important part of my father's legacy. Um, and the family's talked about it.

Um, you know, we talk about it all the time. Uh, so, um, but especially, you know, this time of year. 

Katie Grant: [00:23:31] What are a few ways Wisconsinites and beyond Wisconsin can embrace your father's legacy and celebrate Earth Day this year? 

Tia Nelson: [00:23:38] Well, there's an unlimited number of things one can get involved in or be a part of, uh, you in, in your local community, um, or, uh, through, uh, established organizations. And that was one of the things that was really exciting to me about the video we've produced the, uh, the Sunrise Movement is very oriented towards youth activists. Uh, RepublicEN is oriented towards a more conservative audience. What they share in common is prioritizing, addressing the issue of climate change and, um, uh, the future of our environment.

There's really literally an organization for anyone and everyone to join, uh, and there's, uh, uh, website, uh, the Earth Day Network has a site where you can go plug in your zip code and it'll show you, uh, local events here in Madison. I invite everyone to attend the University of Wisconsin Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies Earth Day, um, celebration, which goes on, is really going to be fabulous this year and has a number of significant national speakers, uh, and workshops. And that's on April 20th, all day at Monona Terrace. Uh, there are, um, uh, more local activities one could get involved in, uh, if you don't feel like joining a group. You can, uh, do something with your neighbors or friends um, uh, that, uh, would be probably pretty similar to what people were doing in 1970 deciding, you know, how they wanted to get involved, whether they wanted to go pick up trash or plant trees or join an organization. And, uh, there's sort of an unlimited in terms of, of what one can do because every, every individual action matters and, and people, um, uh, have an opportunity to get involved in any number of ways. 

Katie Grant: [00:25:48] Yeah. So at Wisconsin DNR, we are embracing Earth Day 365 and encouraging residents to take small steps all year so that taking care of our natural resources isn't just a thing that we think about once a year. Do you have any suggestions for small steps that people can take to make a difference?

Tia Nelson: [00:26:05] There's a number of powerful small steps one can take from reducing food waste to avoiding single-use plastic to composting food scraps to using energy-efficient appliances to things like ... Funny little fact to know and tell is that something called phantom power, meaning our devices plugged into the wall when we're not using them probably about 15% of average home owner's electricity consumption. Simply unplugging those appliances when you're not using them, uh, is a way to save energy and it saves money. Um, so, um, being a conscious consumer, uh, being aware of one's impact, uh, on the planet, knowing that, you know, one of my favorite quotes from my father is "the economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment. Not the other way around." 

And so um, we have to recognize that our natural resource base is finite, um, and that we have to be good stewards of it. And that individual action, how we conduct ourselves in our daily life really does matter. Um, voting for, um, uh elected officials, whether it at the local or state level, who put forward policies that protect our rights to breathe clean air and drink clean water is really important. Outrider.org has a section, um, about how you can help. Uh, it includes a way to assess, uh, your personal greenhouse gas footprint and things that you can do to, um, reduce it.

So, um, get involved. Talk about it. Take action and join an organization that suits your particular interest.

Katie Grant: [00:28:02] At a time when there can be a lot of doom and gloom in the news, how do you stay optimistic about the future of our environment? 

Tia Nelson: [00:28:08] I often say I'm in a complicated dance between hope and despair.

You can't be involved every day of your life in the environmental challenges that we face today and not be concerned. Uh, the science tells us we have a lot to be worried about. On the other hand, I know the power of individuals to make a difference. I know how on that first Earth Day, a simple call to action, uh, precipitated significant progress in how we manage our resources and, uh, protect our environment. And so I reflect on my father's legacy and work. I reflect on the fact that he worked tirelessly and was, felt a sense of defeat, um, many, many times, but he got up the next day and went back to work and made significant progress.

And I believe in American ingenuity. I know that we have a bright future of clean and renewable energy. That today renewable energy is... costs less than fossil fuel energy. We have some big challenges as we make that transition, but we know what the solutions are. And, uh, it's a question of creating the social will and political capital to move forward, uh, swiftly with a sense of urgency to address these challenges. And I believe we can do it, but we, we have to join together. That's why I'm so excited about the film with Bob Inglis and Varshini Prakash. They have very, very different ideas about what the solution is. That doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is that they've come to the table to have a conversation about how we can work together and solve these big environmental challenges. That's what matters. And as long as we're having the conversation and agreeing that the problem requires an urgent response, we'll find a way to build the social capital and the political will to act.

And so that is how I think about it and motivate myself to carry on the work. 

Katie Grant: [00:30:34] You've been listening to Wild Wisconsin, a podcast brought to you by the Wisconsin DNR. Show us on social media how you're celebrating Earth Day this year by using #EarthDayAtHome and tagging Wisconsin DNR in your posts.

For more great content, be sure to subscribe to Wild Wisconsin wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review or tell us who you'd like to hear from on a future episode. Thanks for listening.

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