Dec 22 2020 19 mins 4
‘Tis the season for celebrations and recollection. We’re looking back at all 15 Wild Wisconsin – Off The Record podcast episodes from 2020 and delivering our “greatest hits.” Hear highlights from a few of our best episodes and find a new favorite as we head into the new year.
Listen to the full episodes here:
What 50 Years Of Clean Air Looks Like
Find all of our past episodes here. Or tell us who you’d like to hear from in 2021.
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TRANSCRIPT
ANNOUNCER: [00:00:00] Welcome to Wisconsin DNR's Wild Wisconsin "Off the Record" podcast. Information straight from the source.
KATIE GRANT: [00:00:12] Welcome back to another episode of Wild Wisconsin Off the Record. I'm your host DNR's Digital Communications Section Chief Katie Grant. For our final episode of 2020 we wanted to do something a little different. Whether you've been listening for a few episodes or for years, we hope you'll enjoy some of 2020s greatest hits.
We start with clips from our episode on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Now, this episode is special for two reasons. For starters, the founder of Earth Day was Wisconsin's very own Gaylord Nelson, a former Wisconsin Senator and Governor. And for this episode, we were actually joined by his daughter, Tia Nelson, who has an impressive resume for her work in environmental advocacy.
Listen in as Tia talks about her father's legacy.
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist has gained international recognition for her climate strikes. She's also known for having said, "Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people to give them hope, but I don't want your hope. I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is."
How does it make you feel to see her and other young activists who are leading the environmentalist fight and do you think they fit with your father's legacy?
TIA NELSON: [00:01:40] Yes. They certainly do. It's really... the story of Greta Thunberg is, um, a really inspiring one and it is one that I reflect on quite often for the following reason. It would have been impossible for Greta to imagine when she was sitting alone, protesting in front of the Swedish parliament that that simple act of defiance would launch a global youth movement.
Just as Rosa Parks could not have known that that simple act of defiance, saying no to that bus driver when he demanded she move to the back of the bus, she simply quietly said one word. No. It changed the course of history. Just as my father could never have known that the simple idea of setting aside a day to teach on the environment on April 22nd, 1970 would launch the environmental movement, propel the environmental movement forward in these unimaginable ways. Keep in mind, there was no Environmental Protection Agency. Uh, it was signed into law by a republican president, Richard Nixon, um, some months after the first Earth Day. The Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, uh, Endangered Species Act, a whole slew of laws that we take for granted today passed that first decade after Earth Day. More environmental laws were passed, um, in the decade that followed that first Earth Day than any other time in American history. And so, Greta's story is inspiring to me in the way that Rosa Parks' story is inspiring in the way that my father's story is inspiring. These were individuals who had a set of values, who cared passionately about something and they took action and they kept at it and they changed the course of history. It demonstrates to me the power of individual action to inspire others, to become involved and be a part of the solution. And that to me is, is incredibly inspiring. Earth Day was successful beyond my father's wildest dreams. He never could have imagined that 20 million people would gather on that day or that 50 years later we would be celebrating, uh, his legacy in this way.
And I, and I, I think that, that people on the hundredth anniversary of Earth Day, uh, will be saying the same thing about Greta Thunberg and the youth activists around the world who have done exactly what my father had hoped youth would do. And youth did do that first Earth Day. It shook up the establishment and made them pay attention.
KATIE GRANT: [00:04:37] So at Wisconsin DNR we are embracing Earth Day 365 and encouraging residents to take small steps all year. So that taking care of our natural resources isn't just a thing that we think about once a year. Do you have any suggestions for small steps that people can take to make difference?
TIA NELSON: [00:04:53] There's a number of powerful, small steps one can take. From reducing food waste to avoiding single use plastic to uh, composting food scraps to using energy efficient appliances to things like... funny little fact to know and tell is that something called Phantom power. Meaning our devices plugged into the wall when we're not using them.
Uh, probably about 15% of average homeowner’s electricity consumption. Simply unplugging those appliances, uh, when you're not using them, uh, is a way to save energy and it saves money um, so, um, being a conscious consumer. Uh, being aware of one's impact on the planet, knowing that, you know, one of my favorite quotes from my father is... "The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other way around." And so, um, we have to recognize that our natural resource base is finite, um, and that we have to, uh, be good stewards of it. And that individual action, how we conduct ourselves in our daily life really does matter. Um, voting for, um, uh, elected officials, whether at the local or state level who put forward policies that protect our rights to breath clean air and drink clean water is really important. Outrider.org has a section, um, about how you can help. Uh, it includes a way to assess, uh, your personal greenhouse gas footprint and, uh, things you can do to, um, reduce it. So, um, get involved. Talk about it. Take action and, uh, join an organization that suits your particular interests.
KATIE GRANT: [00:06:51] Catch more from Tia and her passion for the environment on episode 46, titled "50 years of Earth Day." Sticking with the theme of anniversaries we also wanted to highlight clips from our episode on the 50th anniversary of the Clean Air Act. We brought in two leading air experts, Gail Good and Brad Pierce to discuss the impact of clean air here in Wisconsin. They give an explanation of the Clean Air Act, how Wisconsin faces some unique challenges and ways our state's air quality has improved over the last 50 years. What is the Clean Air Act?
GAIL GOOD: [00:07:29] The Clean Air Act is one of the most successful pieces of federal legislation that's ever been enacted. You mentioned it was put into place 50 years ago, and that's, that's true actually at the end of this year, right on December 31st, 1970 was when the Clean Air Act was signed into existence. It's gone through several amendments. Clean Air Act, um, was designed really to um, cut down on air pollution while growing the economy. And the benefit of that, the cut down in air pollution is that it's actually saved lives over the ...
