Gaylord Nelson’s legacy is known and respected throughout the world. He was a founding father of the modern environmental movement and creator of one of the most influential public awareness campaigns ever undertaken on behalf of global environmental stewardship: Earth Day.
    Nelson died in 2005, but his message in this book is still timely and urgent, delivered with the same eloquence with which he articulated the nation’s environmental ills throughout the decades. He details the planet’s most critical concerns—from species and habitat losses to global climate change and population growth. In outlining strategies for planetary health, Nelson inspires citizens to reassert environmentalism as a national priority. Included in this reprint is a new preface by Gaylord Nelson’s daughter, Tia Nelson.

Gaylord Nelson (1916–2005) was governor of Wisconsin, served in the U.S. Senate from 1963 to 1981, and worked for the Wilderness Society. He originated the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995 for his contributions to the environmental protection movement. Susan Campbell, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is communications manager for the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Paul A. Wozniak is a member of the Board of Governors at the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame and a Wisconsin conservation historian. Tia Nelson is executive secretary to the Wisconsin Board of Comissioners of Public Lands. She worked for many years at the Nature Conservancy and is a past recipient of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Climate Protection Award.”