Earth Day founder Nelson dies


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MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- Gaylord Nelson, a former governor and U.S. senator from Wisconsin and the founder of Earth Day, died Sunday. He was 89.

Nelson died at his home in Kensington, Maryland, of cardiovascular failure, said Bill Christofferson, Nelson's biographer and a family spokesman.

"He died peacefully. His wife was with him," Christofferson said.

Thirty-five years after the first Earth Day, April 22 is still a day on which many people plant trees, clean up trash and lobby for a clean environment.

A conservationist years before it became fashionable, Nelson was recognized as one of the world's foremost environmental leaders.

President Clinton presented Nelson with a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995 for his environmental efforts.

"As the father of Earth Day, he is the grandfather of all that grew out of that event: the Environmental Protection Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act," read the proclamation from Clinton.

The first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, attracted an estimated 20 million people. Tens of thousands of people filled New York's Fifth Avenue, Congress adjourned so members could speak across the nation, and at least 2,000 colleges marked the occasion.

source:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/07/03/obi...n.ap/index.html

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