Interviewees
Earth Days
STEWART BRAND
—Whole Earth Catalog
Perhaps best known as the editor of the influential Whole Earth Catalog, which heralded the green “back-to-the-land” movement of the early Seventies. Unlike many environmentalists of that era, Brand is a technological optimist and an Internet pioneer. His faith in technological solutions to environmental problems has led him to embrace nuclear power, a stand that has put him at odds with other environmentalists.
PAUL EHRLICH
—The Population Bomb
A charismatic spokesman for population control, wrote the best-selling and controversial book The Population Bomb in 1968 and played a major role in the environmental movement. Ehrlich argued that environmental problems were caused by over-population. His dire predictions of catastrophe never came to pass. Yet Ehrlich’s apocalyptic warnings played a pivotal role in bringing the issues of family planning, contraception and legalized abortion to the fore, both in America and throughout the world.
DENIS HAYES
—First Earth Day, 1970
Was the chief organizer of the original Earth Day in 1970. He and his staff of young Harvard graduates worked tirelessly for months under the inspiration and sponsorship of Senator Gaylord Nelson to organize a national teach-in on the environment, an idea that eventually became Earth Day. He has since become a pioneer in solar energy and remains a major force in America’s environmental movement.
L. HUNTER LOVINS
—California Conservation Project and the Rocky Mountain Institute
Has extensive experience with economic development, forestry, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and construction of sustainable buildings. In 1983 she received the Right Livelihood Award (often called the “alternative Nobel Prize”), and in 2000 was named Time Magazine Hero for the Planet.
PAUL (PETE) McCLOSKEY
—Congressman
Was a Republican congressman from California and served as co-organizer of the original Earth Day with Denis Hayes. He is credited with authoring the Endangered Species Act, one of the cornerstone environmental regulations enacted in the wake of Earth Day. McCloskey has been an outspoken critic of the way many of his Republican colleagues have continued to disregard environmental issues.
DENNIS MEADOWS
—Limits to Growth
Is a co-author of the influential and highly controversial book Limits to Growth, published in 1972 as part of the famous Club of Rome report. His work has explored interactions between population, industrial growth, food production and limits in the Earth's ecosystems. Using computer models, he predicted that at the current rate of economic and population expansion, the Earth’s ecosystem would be pushed to the point of collapse by the middle of the 21st century.
STEPHANIE MILLS
—Earth Times
Burst onto the national scene in 1969 with her Mills College commencement address, “The Future is a Cruel Hoax.” Mills believed that humanity was destined for suicide, due to overpopulation and overuse of natural resources. Mills worked as campus organizer for Planned Parenthood, speaking on overpopulation and the necessity of birth control. She collaborated with environmental leaders including Gary Snyder, Stewart Brand and Richard Brautigan on the ecological manifesto Four Changes. In 1970, Mills became editor-in-chief of Earth Times, a San Francisco-based monthly environmental tabloid, and later worked as an editor for Co-Evolution Quarterly, Not Man Apart, California Tomorrow, and Earth.
RUSSELL L. (RUSTY) SCHWEICKART
—Apollo 9 Lunar Module Pilot
Served as lunar module pilot for Apollo 9 in 1969. While temporarily stranded outside the capsule he had a transforming encounter. Looking back on the earth, he saw a “shining gem against a totally black backdrop,” and was so overcome he wanted to “hug and kiss that gem like a mother does her firstborn child.” In 1977, Schweickart joined the staff of Governor Jerry Brown of California, serving as Brown’s assistant for science and technology. Schweickart was appointed California's Commissioner of Energy in 1979 and was responsible for energy demand forecasting, alternative energy development, power plant siting and energy performance regulation for appliances and buildings.
STEWART UDALL
Secretary of the Interior
Served as Secretary of the Interior under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He was responsible for passing a host of early environmental laws in the 1960s that laid the groundwork for much of the sweeping legislation that went into effect the following decade in the wake of Earth Day. In 1963, he authored an influential early call to arms on environmental pollution called The Quiet Crisis, with an introduction written by President Kennedy.