The Desert Sun from Palm Springs, California • 29

the Desert Sun Inside: OpinionC2 ReligionC4 HealthC5 Mi mm SATURDAY, April 22, 1995 Keith Carter, Editorial Page Editor: 778-4617 By KEN MILLER Gannett News Service recently as three months ago, Earth Day 1995 had trappings of a bust an environmental celebration without A mantra. "Make sure the inside-the-Beltway politicians get the message." The icon of the environmental movement, Greenpeace, was incubating in 1970 in the minds of a handftil of no-nonsense, no-nuke, no-war activists who left the United States for Canada. Greenpeace was launched in 1971 and after a shaky first decade remains the world's best-known environmental group. "A whole lot has changed in that 25 years," Greenpeace Director Barbara Dudley said. "It's a very good time for reflection." Greenpeace, however, is not among the 20 national and mostly Washington-based green groups suddenly assembling a mega-event on the Washington Mall and across the nation this Earth Day.

Aside from passage of a quarter-century and a generation, Dudley said there's little magic about the 25th Earth Day. "I didn't find earlier Earth Days, certainly the one in 1990, very reflective," she said dryly, flashing a bit of the legendary Greenpeace attitude. made things far more complicated. Today's environmental jargon is littered with such tortured concepts as "sustainable development" and "carrying capacity," crucial to understanding today's environmental issues but impossible to put on bumper stickers. Small wonder Earth Day '95 was blowing every which-way.

"What we saw in 1970 was really the birth of the modern environmental movement," said Karpinski, of the Public Interest Research Group. "It led to the passage of strong laws that dealt with problems, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. "And, don't forget, they've all been strengthened during Republican administrations and for the most part have had bipartisan support. Now all those laws are under severe attack, both indirectly through the Contract and directly through the reauthorization processes. "The challenge is to mobilize support and turn it into action," he said, repeating a 25-year-old If Movement evolves from comiercuimre to mainstream a cause, neavy on siiver-anniver-iary oratory, woefully short on issues.

With blinding speed, the Eepublican "Contract With America" seems to have changed that, jhe 25th Earth Day is coming together as a replay of 1970's Earth Day Anger once again is in the air, a common foe back in the cross-hairs. The most significant thing to notice is that while we are looking at the 25th anniversary of Earth Day, we're also looking at the Biggest rollback of all the environmental progress made since the first Earth Day," said Gene ftarpinski, executive director of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. "While 80 percent of the public supports strengthening our laws, iftside the Beltway, Congress is rolling back 25 years," he Until recently, environmental groups were engaged in their customarily unfocused eco-squabbling over who was rightful custodian of Earth Day's premier events. There has been and still is Competition over whose logo would be used, who is in charge, For 25 years, financial and 1 Membership support for environmental groups has ebbed and flowed in inverse relationship with the party controlling the White House.

Membership swelled in the Reagan-Bush era, but began to slacken when Bill Clinton assumed Power. The state of the environment As the 25th anniversar of Earth Day is celebrated, Americans say the environment is in less than excellent shape. Here are some details from a just-released Harris poll of 1,255 adults surveyed, between April 14 and 20. How would you rate the environment In the country? lishment As a young professor, Geiger found himself trying to copl things down. But like spontaneous combustion, the first Earth Day already had exploded into a collective demand for environmental action.

"There was a sense then that, if I understand what's wrong, they'll figure it out and we'll be OK again," he said. 1 The point then was to make noise, draw attention to the nation's undeniable environmental crises, then expect people to be so outraged that the problems would be solved. It worked, in part. That same year the Environmental ProtectionAgency was created and Congress passed the Clean Air Act. It also passed the National Environmental Policy Act, a little-known but hugely important law that requires all federal agencies to undertake Only fair for the environmental movement and ignited what loomed as another ho-hum Earth Day.

Today, the target is Washington, the Republican Congress and, more precisely, efforts under way in Congress to water down the nation's environmental laws spawned by the first Earth Day. Things are starting to look and sound a lot like 1970. "Our culture at the time was very much moving toward confrontation," said Brother Don Geiger, a member of the Marian-ist congregation who also is a professor of plant physiology at the University of Dayton. He was an organizer of the first Earth Day and is an organizer of this one. Geiger, director of the Marian-ist Environmental Education Center, said the atmosphere in 1970 flowed from the incendiary late-1960s.

There was a notion that you take things into your hands and "oppose the establishment," he Excellent 4 Pretty good Not sure Poor 1 Natural Resources Defense Council was born the same year. 1 That spurt of environmental legislation turned into a torrent: DDT was banned and the Clean Water Act enacted in 1972. Recycling began in earnest, and in a 10-year span most of the rest of the nation's environmental, conservation and public health and safety laws were enacted. "Environmental values are now mainstream and front-and-center," said Pattie Sullivan, deputy director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which also turns 25 this year. That's the transformation I've seen.

From 1970 until now, the environmental movement and its values have become centrist. Environmental groups had been around for decades The Wilderness Society is 60 but the environmental movement didn't really begin until Earth Day. Many of 1970's issues, from clean air and water to wildlife conservation; remain as important today. But quantum leaps in science have 3 Do you think that by the year 2000 the quality of the errvironment In the country will get better, get worse, or stay about the same as It Is now? Get worse Get better Stay about the Not sure tame 1 3 Then came the 1994 elections, but results didn't sink in for a Numbers may not add up to 100 due to rounding, environmental impact state ume. inow, it is clear tne uur SOURCE: Louis Harris Associates polling firm 6NS graphic ments" before major actions.

The contract has aligned the planets said. "And I was part of the estab A A mm teaches eco-respect By STANLEY BAILEY The Desert Sun PALM DESERT belonged to an animal," Levy said. She said it's important to instill an environmental ethic in children. "If you wait until they are teenagers, it's too late," she said. For Earth Day, her Students are preparing a project titled "Only one Earthi take care of it." Using recycled paper, students will paint a picture of the planet showing its evlin Donohue believes i paper comes from fax machines, but he also 'believes in protecting trees in the rainforest.

GREEN SCHOOL: rrr-Even preschool-age children embrace lessons about endangered species, pollution and recycling, says Anne Levy of the Tikyah PreSchool in Palm Desert. From left, in front, is Lisa Steinback, 5, Madison Ryder, 4, and Ian Kuyk-endall, 4. Behind Levy is Bobby Bench, 5. Haley Ozalvo, 3. is at far right.

Desert Sun photo by ANDY GQMPERZ Sinai-Jewish Community Center in Palm Desert. She said teaching preschoolers about ecology and preserving natural resources has been a central part of her curriculum for five years. Her students, she said, are the "next generation of environmentally friendly kids. "At first, I thought the subject matter was too sophisticated for kids this age," she said. "But they have soaked it up like sponges, and the parents are happy to see their child is aware of the environment." She said the most rewarding I A I i4 A -r i "We have to protect the rainforest because the animals need the rainforest to live," he said.

And Amanda Caudill is adamant about cutting plastic six-pack rings before throwing them away just in case they end up someplace where they could entangle wildlife. It's the hope of that the 4-year-olds will grow up to be more environmentally responsible than some of those in previous generations. "I swear to you not one person who graduates our preschool will ever grow up to own a fur coat," said Anne Levy, director of the Tik-vah PreSchool at the Temple environmental troubles. "Don't let (helium) ballons go, because when they pop they fall into the ocean and the fish will eat it and choke," Amanda said. "Don't waste paper 'cause paper comes from the trees and you have to cut them Rachel Gottlieb said.

1 Levy said the response to her environmental lessons has been positive from parents. "More and more, parents today are realizing that these are important values to teach their children, more than just academics," she said. aspect of the curriculum is the two weeks the class spends learning about endangered species. The lessons range from listing species in danger of becoming extinct to the ivory poachers of Africa. "Two years ago, one of my former students went with his parents to the airport to pick up his grandmother.

She was wearing a fur coat, and he asked her why she was wearing the coat because that fur A 'Qna-msn army' cleans up higMssert town 1, By DOUGLAS HABERMAN The Desert Sun TWENTYNINE PALMS HELPING HAND: Don Van Blaricom didn't like what he saw when he returned to Twentynine Paims after retirement, so he began cutting brush and picking up. garbage. Desert Sun photo by ANDY GOMPERZ J. 1 cleanliness is next to godliness, Don Van Blaricom is trying to nudge his town a little closer to heaven, i A former Air Force sergeant rfT' record the natural and human history of the region on six murals by next October, Van den Houten said. Today April 22, Van Blaricom will help lead a group of Brownies, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Explorer Scouts and other youths in an Earth Day trash cleanup starting at 7:30 a.m.

in a vacant lot west of McB's Sporting Goods, 73-484 Twentynine Palms Highway. It's all part of his desire to make the town a more attractive place to live, he said. "I'm trying to pinpoint different areas that need attention," he said. "If they were taken care of, the problem would be down to nothing." court probationers with community service sentences to remove trash and graffiti. The City Council allocated $4,500 to Project 29, and the organization is converting an old warehouse on Desert Queen Avenue into an office and youth project center.

People have noticed the results of. Van Blaricom's efforts, said chamber Executive Director Karen Van den Houten. The area does look much cleaner. It really does," she said. "You don't see the piles of junk you used to." Van Blaricom's work ties in with other downtown revitalization projects, including a campaign that will blighted area, like downtown Los Angeles." After appeals to officials failed to spark action, Van Blaricom took matters into his own hands.

"We have lots Of vacant "lots around here, and he's just like a one-man army," said resident Cathy Patrick, 41. "Anytime you go anywhere you see that man out there. He's just really taken it upon himself to clean up the town." Van Blaricom helped organize periodic town cleanups and has founded Project 29, a non-profit organization under the umbrella of the Twentynine Palme Chamber of Commerce. Project 29 will use and Ford Aerospace technicians Van Blaricom, 59, spent the fifth through eighth grades here and moved back in late 1991 after he retired to be near his mother. "When I came back, the first thing I noticed was there was an awful lot of trash blowing around ui the vacant lots," he said.

"As far as I was concerned, it was like a car? No trouble for smog-free couple By CECILIA LEYVA the Desert Sun PALM SPRINGS 1 magine life without car payments or car registration. No gas. No oil changes. No new tires. Bill and B.

J. Nadeau PEDAL POWER: Bill and B.J. Nadeau never have to worry about a dead bat-; tery or filling up the gas tank, 'instead choosing an eco-friendly mode of trans-I portation. Deeert Sun photo by MAX ORTIZ IOAN column, which regyia-ly bears on this has been hoved InskJe to CX $5,000 a year by not owning a car. "Owning a car these days is financially unhealthy," Bill said.

"It can also be a detriment to society." The Nadeaus have lived in the desert 35 years. During the summer they travel to Colorado or Europe. In Europe, they say it is much more acceptable to ride a bike, walk or use public transportation. In the United States, a stigma is attached to people who ride the bus, said B. who sports a golden tan from all the time she spends outdoors.

"We want people to do something healthy for themselves and for the environment," she said. "If "We told them it wasn't a matter of economics," said B.J., a retired teacher. "I've always been concerned about pollution. Cars give off so much of it' It is so unhealthy, and it detracts from the beauty of the desert." So in 1986, the couple decided to exchange their 1972 brown Plymouth Valiant for three-speed Schwinns. "We're not backwards," B.J.

said. "We bike for transporation every day, and when we don't bike, we walk." And when they can't ride a bike or walk, the Nadeaus both 60 take the bus. And when it's absolutely necessary to drive, they rent a car. They figure they save people just cut down on the time they spend driving, I think we could reduce the air pollution." In their nine years of bicycling, neither has had a serious accident, although Bill said he was ajice brushed off his bike by a driver who made a sharp righf-hand turn. The Nadeaus acknowledge that a car-less existence is not for everyone especially working families.

But they encourage people to hop on a bicycle at least once in awhile. "The valley is really and everything is nearby," BJ. said. "There are small errands people can do on a bike that will make them feel good." don't have to imagine. Parked in the driveway of their mobile home are two faded-blue bicycles.

"We had a car but rarely used it," said Bill, a retired musician. "We talked about selling it for years before we really did it." Friends who first heard the Nadeaus were car-less offered to buy them one..