here, before it reaches the rest of the country. >> i want to thank you very much. i remind everyone that if you know someone, you know environmentalists. they do not have to be a hike or somebody that goes out on the sea or a hunter. anyone that cares about clean our clean water in the world around us is a person which will call environmentalists and many of them by themselves politically put themselves in the center or on the right. >> since 1979 a partnership with the cable industry c-span has provided's complete coverage of the halls of congress from the house and senate floors to congressional hearings and party briefings and ready meetings. c-span gives your front row seat to how issues are debated and decided. with no commentary. no interruption. and so unfiltered. c-span, your unfiltered view of

government. >> weekends on c-span two are an intellectual feast. every saturday american history tv documents america's stories. and on sunday book tv brings you the last of nonfiction books and authors. funding for c-span two comes from these television companies and more. including comcast. >> you think this is just a community center? or no, it's my mother that. comcast is partnering with 1000 community centers to create wi-fi enabled -- so students from low income families can get the tools they need to be readfor anything. >> comcast along with these television companies support c-span two as a public service. ning. >> good. morning thank you for getting up, everybody. coming to her. me really appreciate. it means making sure my mic sounds good. i'm here in a look at what carl

silence brings revolution. the origins of that book began really when i was a boy. because my mother and father were teachers and we have some of the one perks of being a teacher is you get some extra summertime and use your extra summertime we will go all over the united states visiting our national parks and seashore. i got to go to yellowstone and yosemite in the olympics in the everglades and we had a pontiac have station wagon and a trailer which i grew up in northwest ohio in the midwest. we would then just cozy the country. hot as well as a boy. and it was hard. and wherever i went, i was so reinforced by picking up brochures like we used to do in those days. honest, i would say that the place to buy a -- theodore roosevelt, who also

had asthma as a boy. in which suffer mightily. so i identified with him and i realized he ended up, as i did more, looking to determine 34 million acres of wild america. -- he created the u.s. fire. service all these western national forests where theodore roosevelt. he created 51 federal bird reservations with executive the 00s. they showed him that bars were being slaughtered in florida because of the feathers they wore. anyone can we do have we speak between 19 -- circa 19 hundreds would have come this morning if you are a woman here with -- you we've come to a public lecture wearing a bomb it. with a father and. it because there was a feather mafia in florida. they're gonna labor's down and they blocked their feathers. and they would also steal the

eggs. all of the species were dying. nothing screams a federal intervention more than certain environmental things. what does it do for the ottawa society of massachusetts to say where save a bird species because of our progressive politics and a vigorous audubon society and massachusetts just for those migratory birds to be shot willy-nilly and slaughtered in florida? same with air. does not do any good with air quality say we are a highway we have a stringent air quality. i grew up in toledo. we factories have to try to bring in dirt, over the ohio corridor. there have to be federal air quality. and what are qualities. and sewage treatments. none of this stuff came into the book i wrote. the point is i write a book called the wilderness lawyer, theodore was about and the crusade for america.

all about that generation, he would call the first wave of environmentalism. with conservation there are differences. for our brief purposes, today let's use the word environment. first, reform. wait 1901, 1909. it is the progressive era. theater was with us said the conservation environmentalism has gotten to be the number one concern of our country. even above his great white fleet being built in the navy. i wrote that book, and then when i didn't, i said there is one of the thing, franklin d. roosevelt did it too. i know you have guys have all heard talk about florida roosevelt or fdr, but i will tell you one thing to know about him. it or roosevelt was the state -- went to, harvard fdr went to harvard. if your default was a state legislature in new york, fdr was state legislator in new york. theodore roosevelt was governor of new york, fdr was governor of new york.

theodore roosevelt loved big navy, that was his obsession. fdr had a big obsession with it. theodore roosevelt said that -- most important thing, fdr said conservation is the most important thing in his first new deal act, a civilian conservation core, we're in a void americans got paid $1 a day and planted three billion trees across america, because they had dreamed all of our wetlands. we have -- all of our forests. we have taken and create a dust bowl, ecological disaster all through the great plains quest. but i should also add, theodore roosevelt had a niche, named eleanor roosevelt, and fdr married her. they are tight. and when you deal with environmental conservation, those two presidents are were giants, i wrote two books on them. so the book here, -- revolution. is about the third wave.

when suddenly, fdr created hundred state's. it hundred. i can get into him saving big national parks on the a which he did. he had all of the -- amounts of big ben where visitors were stationed, fdr, right while soldiers were invading normandy. did not was not a game for the roosevelt environmental conservation. but heathrow of where didn't have a victory like that. didn't have a figure like fdr or whoever he build out an obligation of what is his job? he would write tree farmer. he's old christmas trees out of the -- he was born along the hudson river. spent his life along the hudson, buried along the hudson. and really was the leader of what today we call the scenic hudson river movement to protect that beautiful waterway. so, i had a problem, where to begin, who to focus on in this book. and ideally, i want to begin in

1960, john f. kennedy is running for president, new frontier, if you look at the democratic flank that year, environment stuck in their -- very firmly. because there was a feeling, correct feeling, that truman and eisenhower did not do enough on the national resources or environment. it was all boom, boom, boom, postwar industrialization -- now kennedy was kind of going to be a timeout. and, a lot i'm the great california photographer brought out his book in 60 cold this is the american word -- rachel carson, where we mentioned them in, it was writing with a member of the new frontier of john f. kennedy, writing environmental flakes for the democratic party. being hosted by ethel kennedy, bobby kennedy's wife. by jackie kennedy, -- you know, so --

i knew that where i was ending the book, because the third wave ended in 1973. not even a question. it ended in 1973 with the triumph of the endangered species act, passing the senate in 92 to nothing. so when you hear what the liberal, it was american. and that same moment also to the week -- endangered species was the big closing legislation up 73, we have the -- -- oil embargo. okay. fear of gasoline prices, need for energy going high. energy independence. and a counter revolution that developed, immediately to stop rachael carson -- environmentalism, that it got to, far went so far the wright said that nixon had become a new dealer.

i will mention what they thought that. but out of that, the counter swing i will tell you about, it was for the american enterprise institute. heritage foundation. koch brothers industries. stacy brothers. you know? any federalist society, they all are coming to save money, they don't like the federal government regulating them. it is an anti-federal regulation movement that emerged out of the environmental movement. it starts petering out in 73. now, i had two instead of kennedy began my book in 1945. i didn't want to, when i have people complained to me, they see how that my book is. -- i would have done that -- but because the real history began in the days after world war ii -- we talk about it as a victory

over japan, the war has ended, we celebrated, and i would have been in the streets celebrating it. i have never criticize truman for his decision to drop the atomic bomb personally. but i never also criticized a lot of people i read to my book that said whoa, what does this mean to the planet? the great doctor -- won a nobel prize, and the man has just written his do. if this nuclear genie starts going around the world, oh my god! and then, and then john hershey of the new yorker and other journalists started showing what radiation did to the people in japan. skin melting or shows of what happens with and atomic bomb, and you became an anti nuclear movement. the anti nuclear movement got fined tuned to being anti nuclear testing.

so i'm on the, both policy people were -- designing, how do we stop other countries from getting nuclear bombs, wealth, great. but there's a group of grassroots americans that became -- coffers with the environmental movement that stop blowing nuclear weapons up in about. from 1945 to 1992, the united states detonated 1054 nuclear tests. okay? nevada, boom, boom, boom. you think people in nevada cared? cared about radiation? now, -- atomic shaker in las vegas where you can see it snowing -- people were doing the atomic cocktail. give me nuclear buggy will be, we were monopoly from 19 45 to 99, we are the only country in the world what nuclear opens. we are, usa. then russia gets the bomb. and then it's back and forth

with the arms race. meanwhile, we are testing, russia is testing, and the plan suffers from it. how did that anti nuclear group -- the biggest leader is william o douglas, who i read about in the book, who became -- supreme court justice. 1937. douglas has had rushed to say, no nagasaki, after he saw what it did in hiroshima, supreme court justice said don't drop one and nagasaki. justice would go and climb the himalayas and become a buddhist. justice, collecting buddhism, his all seasons hero, henry david thoreau. you know who was else against the -- bomb after the first one was dropped on catholic moral reasons? joseph kennedy, who gets a lot of bad press for being a business guy. he wanted to get the pope involved, and bishops involved. henry luce involved. to make sure there wasn't a second bomb dropped, for moral

implication reasons. but another one, john f. kennedy read -- by the waters over, but he immediately took to a writer named norman cousins, head of the separate review. and norman cousins was the first big major -- gold's man obsolete due to nuclear weapons? a critical, if you read today, is pretty mild. but nevertheless, he was saying, this is not something that we should be celebrating. it is a big problem. kennedy loved it. jack kennedy, when you study like i have close, leave his career in the navy years beyond being -- was much more like joseph heller of catch 22, corresponding, slaughterhouse gaga. he saw an eternity of war -- it's on objective has a chain of command things could go. and he was skeptical of the whole nuclear age. yet he was -- another person opposed to the

atomic bomb was rachel carson. for about nuclear tests. rachel carson was from pennsylvania, a girl growing up on the banks of the allegheny river. and the allegheny river is a glue factory all around there. dirty air, dirty river, it's a beautiful river in western pennsylvania. she would go and collect pine cones and talk about nature in her book. she put her first -- -- to get published in st. nicholas magazine. a magazine,, constructed by the natural world, about the atmosphere. and her teachers started recognizing her through the gift of her science and nature. and literature. so she goes to a school called -- win, in the pittsburgh area. in fact, she wants to be an ocean-ologist. for ocean science person and i've never seen an ocean. even as you graduated from college. she got a fellowship to -- woods hole, massachusetts,

which is in walking distance from john f. kennedy's home in high and support. and woods hole, if you haven't heard about it, was the place if you wanted to study marine life. today, here in lawyer, you have the university of california of san diego with scripts, where i live in texas, we have a university of texas has a marine center, -- gulf of mexico. here, miami's booming, marine science. but -- where the influx rules when. it's like the advanced institute in princeton where brainiacs go to study. we would go there to withhold, and you would find studying the natural sea world. she started studying the migratory patterns of eagles. it caused a lot of people -- there was no women in the field of deals. and they do have remarkable journeys, ills, from africa all the way to the interior rivers of pennsylvania. and she started writing columns for the baltimore sun.

she did an advanced degree in zoology at john hopkins. she gets hired in world war ii to write marine radio scripts for radio, about our shad populations, our -- fish stocks. fun pieces events eruptions or ocean observation for radio. and we are kind of thing before npr was born. and she worked for fdr, got the new deal. and look team 46 she is writing a series called conservation action. if you won first federal for address the radiance that theodore roosevelt created our today's u.s. nation wildlife. whereas just you guys, you all here, you owe 550 national wildlife refuges. they are all around you hear. i love them. this is government at its best, protecting species, protecting always is. and we sometimes don't realize that this is a great gift we have got to these wildlife refugees.

but she was writing the little buckets for them. you know, if you wanted to go distance, sunny bono, -- she would tell you what bird, what is going on in that ecosystem, great stuff. but she got two clues about world war ii. being in government that were. one, it was the nuclear issue. the second, ddt. because the other big advancement, it was the manhattan project -- on a losing that won the war surely is the -- ddt pesticides. if you were young donald kennedy or richard nixon or lyndon johnson, even on the pacific, and europe, but it made a big difference in the pacific. you have would have been doused with ddt, sprayed house. and i would have to, you and you would have to. it killed lice, it kills mosquitoes. it kills cortex. it is a miracle. it helped us. we would take planes, future environmentalists seem very calm, it was a genius for world

war ii for a country that invented the device that was brady t appropriately administering it over vast islands in the pacific so our troops wouldn't be attack with malaria. the problem is, rachel carson being in government and working that u.s. fishing wildlife, eat particularly -- maryland, where we have the national -- you guys -- national wildlife research center. when we test chemicals on waterways and air is to see how it affects wildlife, meaning how it might affect us soon. and she knew ddt was toxic to fish and birds. she had read dreams of data, documents, piles, and so she decided that she was going to kind of be a whistleblower. wanted to go public with readers digest. and they rejected her. they said no way. why? ddt was big business. it was one of the u.s. department of agriculture, every farm in the united states was being sprayed with pesticides. it was considered a miracle. it was as big a powerful lobby

and the chemical industry as oil and glass gas lobby today, it was huge. and so she got flummoxed, and rachel carson instead wrote three books. if none of you have read her the trilogy, three books about the sea life, they were being called to see around us. i love all three. you can get them in a convenience library of american books. one volume. i highly recommend it. nobody writes about ocean conservation in the world of the ocean with the grace notes of racial carson. that's a literary person. in my, mind there is henry david thoreau and rachel carson. and when you are really getting into how -- natural area. an extent, her redding is much more -- it's like two levels advanced of any national geographic writer or something. it is really special. and one of her big family fans where the kennedy family. he loved her book -- do you know john f. kennedy's mother grew up in cochrane, nasa just? swimming, making, and going in

the pond every day? kennedy did not learn to swim in the ocean, they learned to swim at home. did you realize that john f. kennedy's mother made a mission to russia to investigate whether thorough collected's works were in the libraries and russia? do you realize that her favorite but beyond and have a walking by thorough and -- was a book called cape cod. all about the utter cape, the outer cape that her son, john f. kennedy, would find in the cape cod national seashore in 1961? and when i say national seashore, guys, when kennedy became president, we had one, cape hatters. hard ones around coastal areas. i, if i were president or jimmy carter was president, a lot of people say, he saves this many anchors alaska. it is mountain rock. you know? here is a big, you know what kennedy saw? i am not criticizing that.

i am simply saying, for the politics of it. great reporters turned out with these politics. kennedy actually got to the seashore real estate for public parks. like cape cod. like perjury island, texas. like point raise, california. with moran. you go there, now it's john f. kennedy seizures. because kennedy had read rachel carson, roses a fanatic, the book they loved was a book under some book by henry david thoreau, paul, cape cod, that book was help create kids got national seashore. that decades after his death. and in the mid 50s, the government came up with the report called -- are managing shorelines. and in that report, public beaches disappearing. everyone is building condos, wants to worry about apartments, hotels, -- dredging. and we are gonna have no open public short land.

for the public to enjoy. and in that movement, kennedy -- as one day conservation thing. so you have got this seashore conservation going. in the 50s, early 60s. you have got the anti bomb stop testing in about a. people are getting sick. and the teeth. and out of the ddt group, a big thing happens. a woman named marjorie spock, how many of you have ever heard of dr. benjamin spock? [laughter] the baby doctor. turned anti war protester. he gave you doctor -- spock's sister, marjorie spock, was an organic farmer. she had a vast part of some fix county, new york, as an organic farmer, i had for, time today there is a whole foods on every corner of every place you go. but she was -- only organic. because you saw these chemicals we were putting in our food stuff, wasn't good.

fair. they were blanket spraying ddt over her property. and so she claimed my right as an organic farmer has been taken away from me. constitutional right. leave me alone, that's my land, i want to -- and produce. if any of you went to law school or have a grand caden of school, or, it's a great idea. i had never, what do i owe, not above me? how many feet do i have to go and i am not in control? i mean, it is interesting. so i don't think it is frivolous, and it made its way to the supreme court like it should have. a supreme court they voted marjorie spock down. she lost. but, william o douglas. grabbed onto it and wrote a dissent, published in reader's digest, that's the birth of environmental law. he triggers the environmental movement with his dissent.

i know, not only did he get to like the himalayas narrative about it, but bill douglass was writing books called my wilderness. he wrote two books called my wilderness where he trampled around the country. and if you are in washington d.c., bob, you are up there. and other states, you go to the casino canal. you might meet the -- bill douglass. but william o douglas hyped 186 miles. then the whole snow, because they were in jabalero there, a highway. he said it is a scenic cultural and history research. he marched 186 miles, because the washington post said build a highway. and he wrote the post should come with me. if you hike with me and you still want to build a highway, great. but if you let me show you what you will do, what you will destroy. to the post editors credit, they went with it. they didn't do the whole hundred 86 miles. but they at least went with the justice to see what he was talking.

about and they said, yeah, we have accomplished many different. here we don't want to destroy the casino canal. he won, douglas. he won his fight. the post backed down, -- no rock god saved. when, that's all douglas needed. he became an environmental activist. a chuckle when i turn on the tv and hear about clarence thomas or conflicts of interest. phil douglas was a walking conflict of interest. his office in the supreme court was the clearinghouse for anything environmental in the country before there was an epa. the epa is not created in 1970. there was nowhere to go. and even an environmental problem out here in rancho mirage or post springs, and you are getting from, it's not getting action in sacramento. you might send a postcard to douglass. and he'd respond, and he'd say, give me every document, every information you can. people, these green grassroots, as the country starts ending

douglas rooms of their daughter about what is going on a local place. and douglas would farm it out to david brower at the sierra club. or william howard -- at the wilderness society. and then douglas kept hiking and hiking. he hiked in kentucky to stop the game and he won. he hiked with bobby and ethel kennedy along the olympic peninsula of washington state and one. no roads. he went to the buffalo river in arkansas, a beautiful river where the protests were so big, people were putting barbed wire across the river so canoes or kayakers would get untangled. there were shootings going on. and there, bill douglas -- now, i didn't say he is a great supreme for justice. okay? okay? you got it. i am just telling you, this is what his life was about. he didn't like lawyers or law clerks, he was very mean to supreme court. he is complicated. but not on the environmental issues. he was a believer. andy in a deep way.

and he won. he showed the greens, get out there. protest. and we can win. and we want the buffalo, richard nixon saved the buffalo river from being dumped. i can go on with douglass's stunts that all worked. he doesn't have a barrier on these things. he brings so much media attention to it. and he backs rachel carson now after spock loses. spock says rachel carson, here is all of the legal information. douglas sends her every dirty document he can find on ddt, the chemical industries. douglas writes a friend in writing, i am going to bend the law against the corporations in favor of the environment. gonna bend the law against the corporations. how do we feel about -- that's got, he's in that zone.

do you think dr. king is the only one protesting? and dr. king instantly on ddt and on the nuclear test, martin luther king junior said, over and over again, what could does it do to integrate the greenville lunch counter? i mean, greensboro, greensboro lunch counter, north carolina. what good does it do to integrate it lunch counter if your -- starting at nine pm? because the fallout was going across america. the hard rain, very varied commoners -- i casually mention at -- collecting they beat samples, -- it's exposed to radiation and who weren't. but rachel carson, crossed a little bit illegal stuff, and then she has got all of her whistleblowers at u.s. fishing wildlife center bob. getting all very and identity info. and she sits down and writes -- a book that comes out in 1962, it's a one book revolution with douglas spurring it on.

because in that book, first, of rachel carson had cancer. breast cancer while she was writing. she lost all of her hair, the radiation treatments. no she was gonna be that's in. and was working against the clock to get it done. when it gets done in january 60, bill douglas says, look, i will get the kennedys on board,, it'll douglas was really close to the kennedy family. i can't tell you how close. it took bobby kennedy, the attorney general, i can all inside maria, to see siberia. that oliver severe. bobby kennedy, robert f. kennedy. not the one today, the original. robert f. kennedy and phil douglas -- bobby kennedy, i feel kennedy told me that while he got high, fear really high, laundry for in the middle of the outflank a severe. sweating, stick, they were looking forward to that what they couldn't find any kind of medicine that could help him. and douglas being a man after

one put on his backpack and said, you are sick, bobby, this is where we parked company. it continues out of sight. it left bobby there doing his own thing. his own darwinian thing. apple told me she wouldn't dr. go douglass for about five years. she was so mad that he left her husband in that state. bobby kennedy loved, he came back,, oakville, you know? kind of macho thing. but, he never handled it against him. but she did. the point is, that was told rachel, we are gonna do this, man, you are gonna be under attack. but we have got your back. articles get published in the new yorker in june of 62. causes holy hack because the chemical industry is not just worried about getting rid of d t. they are seeing this as a trick to do hyper federal regulation on any chemical's. and what are you dumping rivers? where is your chemical going? this is the big takedown. they have to take carson down. they call her every name in the book.

particularly sexual seniors because she had never married. spinster, i want to say they were ugly, but it was -- kennedy, to his, granted at the podium, when asked by -- he said, oh yeah, -- we're gonna get to the results of her, miss carson's book, you know? we're gonna find out, i'm not a panel together. he put a top group of panels, m.i.t. types, you know? we. what, it's carson right, where's the chemical company? carson was right. and the ddt wars come. it goes on for ten years with big chemical saying, we cannot lose this battle, rachel carson died in 64. kennedy's seven 63. the ddt battle doesn't and in 1972. and you know who is the one to abolish -- using the ddt in the u.s.? richard nixon. didn't want to, his first epa

head, william rocco stood up really strong and told nixon, you pointing and epa, i have looked at all this stuff, and we can't use it anymore. and nixon -- he was really livid about nixon, to be honest. to be fair, he did it. he was angry because i am and lose their answers, you know? i middlebury was politically with the cost. on his side. but you did it, nixon. and after that, the revolution toxin. and the big key for kennedy's -- as secretary of interior, our finest ever during these years. we have things like national lamp -- big battle for the north cascades in washington state national park. california was ground zero in my book on a lot of this stuff. for example, the battle of bodega bay. i don't know how you would care or think about nuclear power, because it depends on my mood sometimes.

but i understand the complications of all of that, with anything nuclear. but i will tell you what shut it down, when it was really the pacific electorate company, and california, the electorate company, 20 wanting to build the world's biggest atomic campus at bodega, california. on the san andreas fault. bonehead! they could have found so many other sites, and they decided to build right on the ocean, along where would hit the false line. and in the public, they went nuts, -- but suddenly everyone says no, again, it's the victories of this third wave, they are winning, they're winning battles, they might have a setback like in the supreme court, but then they win. and they are tenacious, it is coming from all walks of life. before i do away with kennedy, let me tell you that kennedy

did one of the great ecological events in world history. the nuclear test ban treaty. you know we stopped testing weapons in nevada? because kennedy sent norman, first off, kennedy sent norman cousins this fringe writer who wrote, when kennedy was in the military uniform, what nuclear weapons are a problem. he sends a secret behind cia, state defense backing norman cousins to be the pope, particularly where he is headed, and then go meet -- it is a third party diplomacy of extraordinary kinds, cousins starts brokering a deal for a nuclear test ban after the cuban missile crisis. and kennedy starting with a great speech in american university, but in the summer of 63, set signed a deal with russia and creators no more atmosphere. or no more underwater testing.

russia today cannot blow up nuclear weapons and test them, okay? due to kennedys treaty. that would allow underground testing. that's another story. but the point is, he did something that the -- meaningful, and -- his speech was the greatest thing that he ever did. kennedy street is achievement. not the moon, going to the moon, he thought kennedy stopping the testing of nuclear weapons was his grades achievement. now, lyndon johnson comes in, and if you want to call him the old new deal, or bill douglas radicals, or whatever you want to call him, he proto-environmentalists, it's often used today. but they were worried about lyndon johnson. because lyndon has fought against the big seashore battle of texas for vaudreuil. and lyndon johnson wanted to develop it with a hotel. and so they were suspicious of london. on the other hand, he loved

after. he loved theodore roosevelt. he married lady bird. and from 63 to the end of his presidency, lyndon johnson was the first great conservation president. the problem with johnson is that he the thought of conservation is america, saving america, the beautiful. lyndon johnson, for example, finds the wild scenic river act, soften beautiful rivers from being damaged. today we all on these incredible wild scenic rivers that weren't -- he did >> -- appalachian trail system, or the pacific -- he did the wilderness act. the wilderness, asked if you look on a, half he will see big parts of wilderness, 1 million acres were no roads are being built. he will turn us act was born in 1935. and our first wilderness unit is kings canyon, parts of kings canyon national park here in california. and that is harold like he's doing and and lot.

and they got to fdr. the big thing, eleanor used to say to environmental people, eleanor said springer pictures. if you show franklin a beautiful landscape, he will say, save it. [laughter] she was so right. all these beautiful pictures, and they wanted over 1 million acres with no roads, nothing except primitive wellness wilderness in this area. and one of the great lines, after after look at the veteran said, oh my gosh, because you love this, this was early and so adams and fdr got his -- young tedious -- and he said, you know, the thing is, guys, i will never be able to see. meaning, i am anna welch here. if i block it off, no roads, no visitor centers, how will i ever see all of these beautiful sites you are showing? >> what do you say to that? he said, oh, well, and then he signed it. and that started the willingness movement. and by 64, lyndon johnson signed the wilderness document, puts nine 21 million acres of

americas -- no roads. roads bring, logging roads bring electricity, roads bringing crew jean incursions from civilization in. you can never get man out of nature, guys, there is something in the water that we do. there is something flying overhead. so it is kind of and idealism, wilderness, but we do it. and we have got big -- johnson, lady bird, you all must know, wild flowers, beautification, she came out here and put a road through big sur in a ceremony to have scenic roads without billboards along pacific coast highways. you know? she went with -- down the rio grande river at big ben. she went rafting, whitewater rafting in the snake river in idaho. on and on. she is our conservation beautification, she wanted to call it environmentalism, and she said london boys wouldn't let me. they wanted the word beautification. she said, i hate, it it sounds like a morticians or something putting a lipstick on a corpse

or something. she didn't like, it but she got stuck with the term beautification, because of environmental that was starting to be seen as a canvas, a buzzword. replacing ecology. but then you did good work. and it is unfortunate that the war has clouded it, we have celebrated lyndon on civil rights and -- npr, and he was a very good conservation president. he was the amazing she was the amazing first lady. nixon, you might, say how is next and? nixon ran in 1968, for president. you will know, that california, he got excited about the environment, a little, but no matter what you, think it's everywhere, people are doing. but do you realize that nixon, after getting environmental questions, he can't answer, do you realize that nixon hires john ehrlichman, goes to prison for watergate, most known. who was a land water lawyer from seattle. and nixon went up there and

went boating with him once. and came back and said, you know, he's really smart. he is making money on, not in my backyard. which people not wanting an aluminum -- they hire his familiar when. and so he became the de facto environmentalists for nixon. the sierra club calls him a covert dream. however he felt on other issues, he was in with the environmental crowd early. and he goes to the white house and to be fair to nixon, he is pressing -- i think it is eight days. and the santa barbara oil spill happens. now. television turned color, the nightly news and 67, you know, all the color of 67. this is january 69. and nixon is not even in his office practically. and a whole tv show is showing birds, in fact, the organization and center barbara gets the oil out. do. but birds trapped in, loyola blue, paradise of santa barbara

oil. wealthy republican donors to nixon who lived along the coast of california, writing nixon letters. do your own thing. and nixon flew out, he had an interior secretary, walter heckl, who told him the exact right thing, he said, don't minimize it. don't tell people how bad it is. do not minimize. because it is bad. and just to say it is bad and we will blame jobs -- [laughter] so nixon did. and he came on and did his, but he wasn't sure how the to play environmentalism. and in the summer of 69, when he is ready to celebrate, neil armstrong on the moon. nixon talking to the astronauts, time magazine is putting cuyahoga river on fire in ohio. and the ruch river on fire. that means, guys, you take a match and put it, and it goes boom. and this starts talking about

how sick our rivers, i remember, there is no epa, okay? you have got no clean water act yet. and so that is going on. and dealer nelson, senator from wisconsin. -- i was national park, the conceptualized-ing of -- he goes and nelson comes up with the idea of a -- for earth day about the environment. now, i have read all of these books, after i read earth day books. first, won the whole country, i saw they had offices everywhere. how does somebody in denver have no offices? and in april has offices everywhere for earth day? follow the money. right? where did that money come from. and he won't believe where it all comes from. not some of, it not a honk or a grant, it is not bill douglas, he was always pretty poor.

it comes from altar with her at the united automobile workers. ruth or funds it. because big, labor big environment, it's oriented. because ruth are, who died days after in a weird praline crash, -- with said blue-collar workers, we cannot go to yosemite, i want to local detroit, michigan, ohio, indiana, where our workers, are we want to clean lakes, fishing, hunting. beaches, local, we want to win. so he was a real environmentalists, he was. you are starting to see my time, what time do i have to end? i will call it a lecture, you have to forgive me, we could go on. two minutes. the key here, then becomes, with earth day, nixon is now starting to say, holy god, this are things really going. reuters paying for everything. this thing is going, i'm kidding. i don't want to be the, but nixon was paranoid of not being the polluter. and he does something really

smart. he makes a deal with 11, he says to john early, when your -- you are in with these guys. i will find what you guys -- if scott scooped jackson office doesn't. i will not, -- has anything to do with it. i am off. so ehrlichman, this is the time that the seattle people, ehrlichman and scoop jackson, their teams get together. and they cobble together the national environmental policy act. if you don't know about nepa, you are living. at this library wouldn't have been built without nepa. nepa signed by nixon in january, 1970, in sacramento, california, at the western white house. before the football games come on. shocking the press goggle following it. he signs the pope, which makes environmental impact statements for construction mandatory, real estate, commercial development, law block block blah blah.

and what does that do, guys? when you sign it nepa? it guarantees environmental law to be approved in this -- i asked my students at the university, there -- i'm not majoring environmental, to go walk for the sierra club are -- a lot of times they are getting hired by exxonmobil to mean environmentalists, making environmental impact statements. but it creates environmental law, which is going to lead us to where the fourth wave is coming with climate change. and am i in my dwindling time, i will tell, you earth day, nixon, he decided to split the difference, he gives the interior department staff today off to teach people about earth. he plans a tree on the white house with nixon, it a photo op. so he did something, tree planting. legit. and how the fbi do deep surveillance on the earth day headquarters and the protesters. [laughter] nixon says they are pinned go commies. i am worried that this is a

reuther socialist plot, and it is aimed to make me look bad. and so ehrlichman, ruffled of people go. and one of the funnier memos, we historians redoubled name mail for a living. one of the funniest letters from them, ehrlichman and pete mccloskey, out here in california, former republican moderate, environmental congressman. they are good friends, ehrlichman and pete. and he says, pete, you won't believe what the fbi came up with. there was nothing nefarious, it was pearls not wearing bras, there was a little bit of smudging going on under trees. there were some dogs running, it is being, he said, it is the most benign surveillance report they have ever seen. they are -- he comes -- but now i know you may find this, funny but i have got to go tell the boss this. and nixon's, like after he surprised in the summer meetings, and he sees the environment as a winning issue. emitted flank of his 1970 state

of the union. in fact, i think it is a third of the speech on the environment, by january 70. summer of 70, he creates environmental protection agency out of the white house with the help of scoop jackson and john dingell on the democratic side. they get, together they get the language, they streamline at all. and it opens the doors december 70, if william rocco becomes the first head of epa, and he is a bad cop. i'm telling, you he knew, we should name the epa he rumble house building. one of the most honest public services i've ever encountered. and i got normal. and it is oral history for university in washington, washington state. rumble house has the hard job. you got on with, as you guys know how brown first topeka, it wasn't just about legislation. separate but equal is no good now. give watching to greet the schools. what is the whole civil rights movement? it is about making people comply. you have got to go to little rock and the seven, are you complying on this?

you have to france elementary school in new orleans, ruby bridges, are you blind? this is the burden of telling polluting companies, extraction industries, chemical injuries, we are busting you, the feds are busting, you are not falling following epa standards or nepa. or, the clean air act. which nixon signs in 1970. soon to be the clean water act of 1972. and so, by the time nixon lee's, that was the end of a revolution that was bipartisan in spirit. it had republicans, nixon and, a guy name russell train, he helped create the world wildlife fund, on the republican side yet john salley are, republican congressman. the speaker the house. gaylord mason, the environmental senators and supreme court justice douglass. it had anti nuke people like loretta scott came. dr. king, a bobby kennedy.

looking for a poster both allied and scenic rivers. drafting the kennedy family to save our rivers. it was popular until became unpopular that was the grand canyon, this, david bower take out full page ads in the new york times and said, would you blow up the 16th chapel? that one is another environmental victory. and we were waiting for the fourth wave right now. and has to be global. it is gonna start by generation z. the baby boomers do not need to feel bad. and using our curriculum with terms like earth science, ecology, earth day, environment and endangered species, and feel like we are losing. but we educated the planet that we need planetary conservation action. i thought when a corded inconvenient truth it might be going on. several republican senators. alas, we are not there yet. there will be a new california

and maybe the leader of the fourth wave because of their rules on getting fossil fuels with no selling a fossil fuel card by 2035. thank you all. get up today with the latest in publishing with book tv's podcast about books. current nonfiction book releases. plus, bestseller lists, as well as industry news and trends through insider interviews. you can find them on c-span now, our free mobile app. and wherever you get your podcasts. weekends on c-span two are an intellectual feast. every saturday, american history tv documents america story. on sunday, book tv brings you the latest on nonfiction books and authors. funding for c-span two comes from these television companies, and more. including --