Co-Founders of First Earth Day Explain Goals of Teach-In
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=41772
General Information
Source:
Creator:
Event Date:
Air/Publish Date:
NBC Today Show
Hugh Downs/Bill
Monroe
04/22/1970
04/22/1970
Resource Type:
Copyright:
Copyright Date:
Clip Length
Video News Report
NBCUniversal Media,
LLC.
1970
00:05:02
Description
On the first Earth Day in 19970, two co-founders of the Environmental Teach-In, Rep. Paul McCloskey
and student organizer Denis Hayes, are interviewed on the purpose and goals of Earth Day.
Keywords
Earth Day, First, Co-Founders, Organization, Demonstration, March, Rally, Protest, Meetings, Teach-In,
Environmental Teach-In, Lecture, Internal Combustion Engine, Pollution, Air Pollution, Traffic,
Aerospace Industry, Boondoggle, SST, SuperSonic Transport, Degradation, Environmental,
Environmental Action Incorporated, Tax Exempt, Non-Tax Exempt, Funding, Foundation, Corporate,
Public Relations, Advertising, Denis Hayes, Representative Paul McCloskey, Pete McCloskey, Senator
Gaylord Nelson, Congress, Legislation, Population Commission, Environmental Quality, Interview,
Washington, DC, New York City, New York, Symbol, Symbolism
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Citation
MLA
"Co-Founders of First Earth Day Explain Goals of Teach-In." Bill Monroe, correspondent. NBC Today
Show. NBCUniversal Media. 22 Apr. 1970. NBC Learn. Web. 19 March 2015
APA
Monroe, B. (Reporter), & Downs, H. (Anchor). 1970, April 22. Co-Founders of First Earth Day Explain
Goals of Teach-In. [Television series episode]. NBC Today Show. Retrieved from
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=41772
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"Co-Founders of First Earth Day Explain Goals of Teach-In" NBC Today Show, New York, NY: NBC
Universal, 04/22/1970. Accessed Thu Mar 19 2015 from NBC Learn:
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=41772
Transcript
Co-Founders of First Earth Day Explain Goals of Teach-In
HUGH DOWNS, anchor:
Earth Day is not centered around any big demonstration in any one place; it consists instead of thousands
of local marches, rallies, protests, meetings and teach-ins all over the country. But it did begin with some
national organization in a Washington office under the name of Environmental Action Incorporated.
We’ve asked two of the national leaders, a congressman and a student, to tell us about it. Representative
Paul McCloskey, Republican of California, is co-chairman of Earth Day, and twenty-five year old Denis
Hayes is national coordinator. They’re both in our Washington studio now with Bill Monroe.
BILL MONROE, reporting:
Thank you Hugh. Congressman McCloskey, did you and Senator Gaylord Nelson have something to do
with starting Earth Day?
REPRESENTATIVE PAUL N. McCLOSKEY (Co-Chairman, Environmental Teach-In): Well I think
Senator Nelson should get the credit for conceiving the idea. I joined with him to form a non-profit
corporation to have an entirely student-run operation that would give it the motivation and direction.
MONROE: The money coming from private individuals?
REP. McCLOSKEY: Well no, the money has come from a mixture of foundations and corporations, but
the students won’t take money from corporations that they deem were polluted.
MONROE: Mr. Hayes, I gather you’ve kept the accent on local activities all around the country. What are
some of the things that are particularly expressive of Earth Day that are going on today?
DENIS HAYES (National Coordinator, Environmental Teach-In): There are a wide variety of things as
Mr. Downs was saying at the beginning. Everything focusing upon a series of specific local issues, some
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of them with national implications. For example, in New York City they’ve blocked off a couple of
streets, one of them for about a ten-hour period, the other for a two-hour period. Some of that can be seen
as a symbolic protest against the internal combustion engine, which of course has national implications. In
other places, people are talking about expansions of airports, and are trying to do what they can to
dramatically point out the flaws of some of the technological boondoggles that are coming from our
aerospace industry, such as the SST. In other places they’re doing things more formerly academic, with
people bringing in lecture crowds to talk about specific environmental concerns. They’re addressing local
problems in such a manner that they’re trying to appeal to the political philosophies of the people in their
area, and there are of course some fairly strong distinctions between a place like Berkeley and a place say
like Oklahoma City.
MONROE: I’d like to ask each of you, starting with Congressman McCloskey, what about opposition to
environment clean up and to this whole movement? You hear talk these days that the environment is as
sacred as motherhood, is there any opposition or is there any resistance, Congressman McCloskey?
REP. McCLOSKEY: Well I can only speak with the industrialists and the congressmen that I see, and in
the last two years I’ve seen all resistance evaporate. There is no one in the congress today that will say ‘I
am against the environment or I don’t think we ought to take strong action to preserve and restore the
environment.’
MONROE: Well Mr. Hayes, a lot of young people leading movements would be uncomfortable seeming
to be in bed with the establishment if there’s no opposition, does that apply to you?
HAYES: I think that the environment isn’t the kind of a bed that everybody can lie in very comfortably,
and when we stop posing problems and we start proposing specific solutions, solutions that have, has
some costs attached to them, then I think that there’s probably going to be some division of the ways. It’s
safe to say that now that our organization has ceased being a tax-exempt organization, we’ve moved into a
non-tax exempt state, an action oriented state, that probably a lot of the people who have been giving us
vocal support are now going to be starting to raise their eyebrows a little bit, I suspect that we’re going to
be in rather serious financial problem. I’m not sure what our sources of funding will be, becauseMONROE: You have, you have moved from a tax-exempt to a non-tax exempt for a purpose?
HAYES: Sure. In the past we’ve been an educational foundation. We had to be totally impartial simply
presenting material and doing what organizing we could to encourage people to set up educational
activities. From this point in time we can begin pointing the finger at specific people who are in specific
institutions, who are responsible for the massive types of environmental degradation, which you find
across the country and indeed around the world today.
MONROE: Do you feel you’ve got it made if there’s so little opposition?
HAYES: No I don’t think that there is that little opposition. At this point in time it’s very, very
fashionable to talk about the environment, but as everyday proceeds we find very, very little concrete
being done. There are now a few measures that are beginning to be introduced by some of the major
corporations, but they’re still spending an insignificant fraction in terms of environmental clean up if it
were compared for example with what they’re spending on public relations. A typical,
MONROE: What about© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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HAYES: A typical sort of day’s advertising for a major corporation is approximately twice the amount for
several corporations that we spent on this entire campaign organizing Earth Day.
MONROE: What about the Congress Mr. McCloskey, does legislation to do something about the
environment go through automatically?
REP. McCLOSKEY: Well it did last year, we passed that population commission and the environmental
quality bill in such sort shrift that is almost incredible. This is the great thing about the teach-in today, is
that the students are looking at the issues, they’re coming up with specific solutions and then they’re
asking specific questions of me and the other members of Congress ‘well have you done it or aren’t you,
and if you don’t do it we’re going to defeat you at the polls,’ and I can’t help but think it’s very helpful.
MONROE: Thank you very much Congressman Paul McCloskey and Denis Hayes.
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