Olof Palme

Olof Palme

His wife was Lisbet Palme.

"In 1967, the then-Foreign Minister of Sweden (Olof Palme) and his colleague, Mrs. Alva Myrdal, a member of the Swedish Parliament, proposed that the United Nations convene the first global conference on the Environment. Lars Engfeldt of the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the United Nations was assigned to follow this proposal from its beginning to the final conference – Stockholm 1972. It so happened that Mr. Engfeldt witnessed the first Earth Day on the Equinox (March 21, 1970) during a commemorative UN program in San Francisco. He has been a strong link ever since.

"By the time of the second celebration at United Nations Headquarters in New York City on March 21, 197l, all those who had assembled to prepare the agenda for the Stockholm Conference were in position to support the concept. Dr. Margaret Mead was the elected Chairperson of the NGO Preparatory Committee, joined as early as 1968 by Sir Peter Scott and Richard H. Pough of the World Wildlife Fund, David Brower of the Sierra Club, Harold Coolidge, Susan Reed and myself of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Jeanne Goodwin, and Walter Bogan of National Audubon, and a host of religious, scientific and educational non-governmental organizations (NGOs)...

"Confusion developed when others initiated another Earth Day a month later on April 22, 1970. Dr. Mead had written that the Equinox Earth Day was the first Holy Day which united all and offended none. She thought it appropriate to have the United States Earth Day on April 22, as well as a global Earth Day on the Equinox." Myself equals Helen Garland.


 * Member, Independent Commission on International Development Issues

Related Sourcewatch

 * Olof Palme International Center
 * Olof Palme Memorial Fund
 * Timeline to Global Governance 1970 to 1985
 * Sweden
 * List of Social Democrats
 * Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute: Four Freedoms Award
 * Jerusalem Center For Women
 * Bruno Kreisky Foundation for Human Rights