“Politicians had always viewed environmental issues as narrow things of no great political consequence. Sort of NIMBY issues. A big part of the reason was that the groups that cared about wilderness didn't talk with the groups that were trying to stop freeways from cutting through inner cities, and neither of them talked to the folks who wanted to stop the military from dumping Agent Orange on Vietnam.” TryingReasonBigsWantedPoliticalCitiesIssuesCuttingGroupsMilitaryPoliticianConsequenceEnvironmentalFolksAgentsWildernessVietnamOrangeInner CityFreewaysEnvironmental IssuesGreat PoliticalAgent Orange Author:Denis Hayes
“Earth Day gathered up those strands, and dozens more, and knitted them together in the public consciousness as "environmental" issues. The nation was pretty startled when 20 million people hit the streets. Congress, which had adjourned for the day to go back to its districts, was blown away.” PeopleEarthTogetherNationsConsciousnessMillionsIssuesStreetsEnvironmentalCongressDozenEarth DayStrandsBlown AwayEnvironmental Issues Author:Denis Hayes
“With time environmental issues got much more complicated. It is pretty easy, if you know what you are doing, to stop a company from pouring poison into a lake where kids swim. It is much harder to address all the myriad greenhouse gases emitted by different sources - from petrochemical refineries to hundreds of millions of peasants cutting down trees for their incredibly inefficient cook stoves.” IfsKnowsDifferentKidsEasyCompanyMillionsIssuesCuttingTreeSourceHarderEnvironmentalComplicatedCooksPoisonAddressesLakesSwimPeasantsPouringGreenhousesGreenhouse GasesStovesEnvironmental IssuesCutting DownRefinery Author:Denis Hayes
“The easiest way to make something cool is to get cool people to do it. Part of this might mean the president has to forget tensions with opponents, or people like Arnold Schwarzenegger who has actually been decent with oil issues. Maybe he needs to pull some of the cool people in and make them model the right behaviors.” PeopleWayNeedsMeanMightPresidentForgetIssuesBehaviorModelsOilOpponentsTensionDecentSchwarzeneggerCool People Author:Denis Hayes
