Gaylord Nelson, Father of Earth Day - MINDS@UW Home

“…articulated an alternative view of the natural world…” that contravened
existing paradigms of natural resource use and consumption in the early and
mid-nineteenth century. 22 Jefferson practiced contour plowing and soil
conservation during the immediate post-colonial era. Emerson wrote his essay,
Nature, in 1836 and was a leader among American naturalists. Thoreau, of
course, went to Walden Pond and articulated a sensibility about the natural world
that had profound impact on future conservationists and environmentalists.
Bryant wrote extensively about the natural world, using nature as a metaphor for
truth. 23 According to Meine, Jefferson, Emerson, Thoreau, and Bryant believed
the natural world was “…a source not merely of material goods, but of intellectual
enlightenment, aesthetic satisfaction, philosophical insight, and spiritual
solace.” 24 Concurrently, explorers and naturalists such as Meriwether Lewis,
William Clark, John James Audubon, and the Bartrams “…described and
documented the astounding diversity of the [American] continent.” 25
In 1864, George Perkins Marsh published Man and Nature, and, along
with other „proto-conservationists‟ such as Frederick Law Olmsted, John Wesley
Powell, and George Bird Grinnell, “…insisted that the attitudes and policies that
had until then dominated the settlement and development of the American
landscape required adjustment.” 26
22 Curt Meine, 16.
23 Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16341.
24 Curt Meine, 16.
25 Curt Meine, 16.
26 Curt Meine, 16-7.
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