Washington Post, Earth Day

Earth Day, Expansively

Publication:
The Washington Post
Publish date:
April 10, 1990
Author:
Charles Trueheart


The bounty of Earth Day seriousness in Magazineland is a marvel to behold.

Smithsonian happens to turn a venerable 20 years old this month, and its thematic history of covering the natural wonders of the world gives the popular monthly (an astounding 2.3 million subscribers) permission to bask in some of Earth Day's good vibes. On this shared occasion, what's more, Smithsonian has produced its first issue ever devoted to a single subject-the environment, of course.

Novelist Wallace Stegner examines the protection of wildness as an element, often dormant, in the American character: "The New World was such a blinding opportunity to Europeans, and lay there so temptingly, like an unlocked treasure house with the watchman sleeping, that nobody thought of limits, nobody thought of preservation, until generations of living in America and `breaking' its wilderness had taught us to know it, and knowing it had taught us to question what we were doing to it," he writes. Stegner then heads from Crevecoeur to Emerson and Thoreau to John Muir and David Brower to such modern-day classics as "A Sand County Almanac" and "Silent Spring."

Then we get down to contemporary cases: first-rate stories on rails-to-trails conversions (by Judy Mills); pristine marshes that serve as natural waste-treatment plants (Doug Stewart); the successes of organic farming (Jeanne McDermott); environmental statements in contemporary painting (Michael Kernan); life at, and inside, the local dump (Richard Wolkomir); and a distinctly friendly encounter with the environmental guerrillas known as Earth First! (Michael Parfit).

Forward to the Future

The Earth Day cover story in World Watch (March-April) postulates that by the time Earth Day 2030 rolls around, by necessity humankind will have achieved a "sustainable society." Population growth will be arrested. Solar, wind, geothermal and other powers will have replaced today's energy sources. Cars will get 100 mpg, and "much socializing and shopping will be done by bike rather than in a one-ton automobile."

Lester R. Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, and his associates Christopher Flavin and Sandra Postel are confident that "job losses in coal mining, auto production, and metals prospecting will be offset by gains in the manufacture and sale of photovoltaic solar cells, wind turbines, bicycles, mass transit equipment ..."

Exxon and Flannel Shirts

In public debate about the environment, "the battle, inevitably, is between Exxon and bearded people in flannel shirts," writes political columnist Joe Klein in New York's April 16 single-topic issue. He has little use for Exxon or the flannel-shirts ("utopian nostalgists ... carcinogen cops ... aesthetes who despair that acid rain will destroy the forests surrounding their summer homes") but sees hope for the environment in "market incentives" rather than regulation.

Klein's analysis is echoed in National Review (April 1), where David Brooks identifies three ecotypes: greens, who represent "revolutionary environmentalism, a romantic effort to reshape society along primitive anticapitalist formulas"; "Abercrombie & Fitch environmentalism" (see Klein's summer-house aesthete); and "managerial environmentalists," a type prevalent in Washington advocacy groups, lawyer's offices, federal buildings. "Driven not so much by ideology as by institutional interests," writes Brooks of his third and least favorite category, "they are the special interests that clog up the economy and divert resources."

Mother's Reinvention

Another in this family of magazines is celebrating 20 years of existence: Mother Earth News. It's now owned by Owen Lipstein, the magazine entrepreneur who created American Health and underwrote the launch of Smart. As of the March-April issue, Mother Earth News has a new design (unmistakably the work of Smart's designer, Roger Black), a new editor, Alfred Meyer, and a new location, New York, after recently abandoning its North Carolina birthplace and home.

"Greetings. This is the Planet Earth" read letters floating across the cover. It seems that on Earth Day, April 22, the words in this issue-sentiments from Pete Seeger, Kurt Vonnegut, George Leonard, Ann Landers, Jimmy Buffett, James Dickey and many others-will be "broadcast into deep space from Mt. Everest. They will travel through the universe forever."

Hands Across the Newsstand

E, one of last year's new crop of environmental magazines, declares "Hands Across the Planet" across its March/April cover. Inside, tales of light battling darkness around the globe-plus a practical guide to linking up with the global environmental struggle through your PC. E makes it sound childishly simple.

New Age Journal (April) checks with the astronauts for their thoughts on the preservation of Mother Earth and explores the historic and persistent animosity between blacks and environmentalists, "an elitist, white-dominated movement." A sidebar covers the beverage industry's effective campaign in black neighborhoods to defeat the D.C. bottle bill.

Newsweek this week (April 16) assesses 2,500 miles of environmental pressures along the Mississippi River-still majestic, writes Jerry Adler, but hurting from "the ravages of erosion, telltale ribbons of sewage, alien chemicals bristling with polysyllabic menace."

Environmental Action launches a campaign for Earth Day and beyond in a March-April package called "Clean Motion." Meaning bicycles, mass transit, carpooling-and how to lobby your municipality for the laws to change people's habits of movement.

Finally, Countryside. The press release says this new Hearst magazine is for "YOUNG PROFESSIONALS SEEKING LIFESTYLE CLOSER TO NATURE," which nicely captures the marriage of environmental awareness and upmarket acquisitiveness within. So does a heartwarming sentiment pulled from a lavish story about a wealthy couple's sumptuous country estate: "John and Lisbeth see themselves as stewards of their land." Hearst, putting a little money where its mouth is, will donate the "charter advertising revenue from this issue" of Countryside to local land trusts.

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