Beyond Earth Day: Fulfilling the Promise [Hardcover]

Gaylord Nelson (Author), Susan M. Campbell (Author), Paul A. Wozniak (Author), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 4, 2002

    Gaylord Nelson is known and respected throughout the world as a founding father of the modern environmental movement and creator of one of the most successful and influential public awareness campaigns ever undertaken on behalf of global stewardship: Earth Day.
    Now in his eighties, Nelson delivers a timely and urgent message with the same eloquence with which he has articulated the nation’s environmental ills through the decades. He details the planet’s most critical concerns—from species and habitat losses to global climate changes and population growth. In outlining his strategy for planetary health, he inspires citizens to reassert the environment as a top priority.
    A book for anyone who cares deeply about our environment and wants to know what we can and must do now to save it, Beyond Earth Day is a classic guide by one of the natural world’s great defenders.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

After Wisconsinite Nelson began his 18-year stint as a senator in 1963, he was shocked to discover how severe air and water pollution had become. Recognizing that people everywhere shared his concerns (he cites the infamous day in 1969 when the toxic Cuyahoga River burst into towering flames), he thought, "Why not organize a huge, grassroots protest about what was happening to our environment?" Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970, and in its aftermath crucial federal initiatives put a halt to the worst offenses. But three decades later, thanks to a burgeoning human population, myriad sources of toxic waste, corporate greed, and general complacency, Nelson, as avid and well informed as ever, observes that we face renewed and increasingly dire environmental threats. Along with his coauthors, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who provides a rousing foreword, the Earth Day founder presents exceptionally lucid explanations of a host of current ecoissues, and calls for a renewed effort to keep these potentially catastrophic predicaments visible and their possible solutions viable through education and citizen action. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"You show me pollution and I will show you people who are not paying their own way, people who are stealing from the public, people who are getting the public to pay their costs of production. All environmental pollution is a subsidy."—Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"The life of the planet and all of its inhabitants have been positively affected by the extraordinary vision and work of Senator Gaylord Nelson. The remarkable agenda he put forth in 1970 is ever more salient today, his wisdom and words needed now more than ever."—Paul G. Hawken, Natural Capital Institute, author of The Ecology of Commerce

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (October 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299180409
• ISBN-13: 978-0299180409
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,337,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Earth Day Founder Recommends State of Environment Speech, February 20, 2003

By 

Michael Neuman (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Earth Day: Fulfilling the Promise (Hardcover)

Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson holds no punches in this book. He brings the question of the ability of the planet to sustain today's consumption-driven American lifestyle into clear focus in "Beyond Earth Day". His report card on the planet is dire but believable.

The book provides a strong case that more dire consequences are up ahead for all of us, unless the current political leadership in Washington abandons its "business as usual" mentality regarding the environment and begins to recognize the urgency and gravity of the situation we are getting into with regard to air, water, land and climate.

"It is time for the president and Congress to reach an agreement that sustainability is the challenge of our time and design a plan of action for the future... There is no room, nor time, for partisanship. The president and Congress should face this issue in a unified and cooperative way and should persist until we reach the goal", laments Nelson.

Nelson recommends that the president of the United States deliver a "State of the Environment" speech to the American public and the world which outlines environmental challenges meriting the nation and the world's immediate attention, and the challenges that lay on the horizon. Such an address, Nelson says, is what is needed "to start public dialogue on the serious environmental problems facing the country and world today". People everywhere need to realize that maintaining the environmental sustainability of the planet is the most important responsibility we all have, because all life on Earth is interrelated, and because our economy is inherently dependent on the environment's "underlying resource base of forests, water, air, soil, and minerals".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond Earth Day, February 27, 2003

By 

Mary Pardee (Wisconsin, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Earth Day: Fulfilling the Promise (Hardcover)

"Beyond Earth Day" gives an amazingly thorough look at the state of our planet, then and now. Discussions of issues are well-referenced and Gaylord Nelson courageously presents honest solutions to problems that many people take pains to ignore. He offers history, wisdom, and guidance in an age when "environment" is an important issue to Americans, yet many are unaware of the seriousness of the issues our water, air, soils and biodiversity face. An America united by the knowledge offered by Senator Nelson has the capability to change the course of catastrophic events involving the very elements needed for life. Share the intelligence of this important book with everyone you know.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Any one who can read should read this book!!, April 28, 2003

By 

John Fix (Green Bay, Wi United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Earth Day: Fulfilling the Promise (Hardcover)

This book covers what should be the most important Issue to all people in the human-rat race. It's an attempt to make people realize how fast we are using up our natural resourses.
I can only hope that this book makes it to the top 10 best sellers list, so that it gets read by a large segment of the population. It's a vary important message and it's easy to read in a short amount of time, and once you read it it would be wise to give it to a friend and have them read it and pass it on to someone else.
Why can't an American president stand up, and run on smaller population and less consumption? Humans will gain less and less with over-population.