Earth Day co-founder Pete McCloskey

Earth Day co-founder Pete McCloskey

A veritable national treasure, Pete McCloskey really has seen and done it all: the last in a long line of McCloskey Republicans dating back to 1859, a Korean War Vet, a Republican Congressman from 1967 to 1983, a candidate against Richard Nixon in the '72 primary on an anti-Vietnam War platform, a co-founder of Earth Day, and co-author of the 1973 Endangered Species Act.
PART ONE (11 min)  PART TWO (7 min)

Long alienated by his own party's abandonment of its principles of conservation, McCloskey switched to the Democratic party this month, at the ripe age of 80. Listen here for a good half-century of amazing stories and political perspective, including his participation in the first Earth Day celebration in 1970...