["The 31st Annual Energy Fair.”]

Curt Meine: Conservation Biologist

Curt Meine is a conservation biologist and environmental historian. He Grew up in Chicago and went to Depaul University as well as the University of Wisconsin and The Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies. As a child he loved the outdoors and sciences. When he was in 6th grade the first ever Earth Day was founded.

Meine believes that Earth Day is very important for raising awareness and starting new movements. He said he is unsure whether the tradition of Earth Day will be celebrated the same way in the future, but he does believe that it will always have an effect on society. He says that in the past, Earth Day was focused more on point source pollution but things have changed. Today Earth Day focuses on nonpoint source pollution because over the years problems have become less visible but still have a large effect on the Earth.

Meine met Nelson a few times at different conferences and events. He had gotten to know Nelson personally and admired him for many things. One thing that stood out about Nelson was his ability to bring people together and bring light to such dull topics. He was able to make jokes and tell stories while getting across the important points. He was unlike any other environmentalist in the way that he would go to a conference and argue all day about environmental issues, then go out for a drink that night and share jokes with those same people.

[“St. Croix 360.”]

Tia Nelson: Conservationist

Tia Nelson is a conservationist and was inspired by her father, Gaylord Nelson, at a very young age. He always showed his love for the environment and because of that, Tia grew up with a love for the environment as well. When Tia was only 14 years old Earth Day was founded. She says that her father never planned to found Earth Day and that it was very spontaneous.

Tia likes to remind people that Rosa Parks couldn’t have known that saying no to moving seats on the bus would spark a change in history, Greta Thunberg a small girl from Stockholm couldn’t have known that her speeches would cause such an uprise, and her father, Gaylord Nelson, didn’t know that he was creating a day that would still be celebrated 50 years later. The outcome of his acts were unknowable by all.

Gaylord went to Santa Barbara to observe the world's largest oil spill at the time and on his flight back, he was reading a magazine published by Rampart that was focused on the Vietnam War teach-ins happening at the time. He originally called Earth Day "Environmental teach-in” and his idea was to hold a few small teach-ins around the area to inform people about pollution and problems in the environment.

Nelson had some great accomplishments in life, one of course being the founding of Earth Day, but some of his other accomplishments were quite large as well. He was the founder of Outdoor Recreation Action Program (ORAP). He also fought for the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the law to ban the use of DDT. Read more about all of these things on the “Nelson’s accomplishments” page of the site.