Endangered Earth Update Let Earth Have Its Day

By JEANNE McDOWELL

It will begin at sunrise on April 22, with church bells pealing for the health of the planet. In tiny chapels and grand cathedrals, Sunday sermons will stress the moral responsibility of environmental awareness. And in thousands of communities around the world, citizens will stage a cacophony of events: parades, proclamations, protests, teach-ins, trash-ins and eco-fairs. In Seattle, residents will demonstrate against pollution in Puget Sound. Environmentalists in West Bengal, India, are planning a bicycle procession. Schoolchildren on Mauritius, a tiny island in the Indian Ocean, will plant trees. And a team of climbers from the U.S., the Soviet Union and China intends to reach the summit of Mount Everest and clean up debris left by previous expeditions. If all goes as planned, at least 100 million people will take part in the largest global demonstration in history: Earth Day 1990.

The April 22 date has special meaning for environmentalists: it marks the 20th anniversary of the first Earth Day. In that memorable 1970 mobilization, which evolved from an idea by Senator Gaylord Nelson, more than 20 million Americans, many of them students, rallied under the banner of Mother Nature. Their plea for action helped lead to the passage of the Clean Air Act and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The organizers of Earth Day 1990 hope it will have a similar galvanizing effect, that it will change individual behavior and launch a decade of environmental activism. This time the event will be international, reflecting the recognition that all the major environmental threats are global in scope. More than 100 countries, including Hungary and Uganda, have started to form committees and plan activities. Says Denis Hayes, a San Francisco lawyer and chairman of Earth Day 1990, an international umbrella organization: "The whole thrust of Earth Day as we go into the 1990s is an environment that is much brighter, a far more diversified movement and, hopefully, a working agenda for the next ten years."

If Earth Day 1970 was almost spontaneous, next year's sequel has become a strategic operation. Hayes, who was a 25-year-old Harvard law student when he temporarily dropped out of school to help organize the first Earth Day, is the driving force behind the current campaign. With principal funding from foundations and individuals, Earth Day 1990 has a 115-member American board of directors that includes prominent environmentalists, politicians, business executives, religious leaders, celebrities, labor officials and journalists, among others. There is an international arm with representatives from 33 countries.

At Earth Day 1990 headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., 20 staff members are plotting strategy as if the event were a political campaign. "We're organizing neighborhoods, regions and special constituencies," says communications director Diana Aldridge. The group has taken a few marketing cues from Madison Avenue as well. As part of a drive to raise $3 million, Earth Day 1990 is licensing its logo, which will be plastered on everything from coffee mugs to windbreakers. Posters and ads will soon appear carrying the slogan EARTH DAY 1990: WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE WORLD?

But Hayes' group is not trying to run the whole show. It will organize nationally and regionally and offer support for local groups, making suggestions for setting up events. Several smaller organizations are extremely active. Earth Day 20, a group based in Seattle, is planning a week-long exposition in a natural amphitheater in the Columbia River Gorge during the seven days leading up to Earth Day. The events, which will combine exhibits, musical performances and speeches, will be broadcast live by satellite to screens in shopping malls and on college campuses around the U.S. Earth Day 20 is also co-sponsoring grass-roots action by the National Toxics Campaign to urge companies that release excessive amounts of pollution to sign good neighbor agreements on reducing toxic emissions.

One of the main goals of Earth Day 1990 is to help broaden the environmental movement far beyond its upper-class, bird-watcher base. Six national labor unions have already endorsed the event, and in February a group from Earth Day 1990 will embark on a nationwide tour to urge minority-group members to get involved. Observes Gerry Stover, executive director of the Environmental Consortium for Minority Outreach: "In this country 4 out of 5 toxic-waste dumps are in or near minority communities. These people have as much stake in what happens as mainstream America, maybe more."

Above all, the organizers hope to have political impact. Says Christina Desser, a lawyer and executive director of Earth Day 1990: "Whereas 1970 awakened people to the issues, 1990 needs to make the environment the screen through which all other decisions are made. I want to see millions of people metaphorically standing in the same direction and yelling the same thing to policymakers: 'Hey, get it, you guys? We mean it. If you don't respond, we'll find someone who will.' "

Earth Day 1990 will show how much people care about their planet. The challenge of the next decade will be to channel that concern into strong and sustained action to save endangered earth.