the "bible" of the First Earth Day and Hypocritical Litterers

c5's Simian Roadhouse ^ | April 22, 2011 | Consigliere5

[mikalasukala]

Seems the Left Hasn't Changed All That Much:

April 23, 1970: Day After the First Earth Day / January 20, 2009: Obama's Inauguration Day

Earth Day Aftermath

Looking hung over from the first Earth Day, litter-filled parks like the National Mall (Washington Monument pictured) in Washington, D.C., on April 23, 1970, partly negated the previous day's environmental message.

"This is sadly the reality of too many environmental activists," said artist Pablo Solomon, who participated in Houston's 1970 Earth Day events.

"The crowds again are often people looking for something to do or have an axe to grind on some other issue. People should practice what they preach."

-- National Geographic

The First Earth Day:

These are the people who organized the first Earth Day:

"We are the people of Aztlan"

from Time Magazine:

Nation: A Memento Mori to the Earth

IT had aspects of a secular, almost pagan holiday—a sense of propitiating an earth increasingly incapable of forgiving what man has inflicted upon it. Much of Earth Day was festive and faddish; yet it touched the American imagination with a memento mori, a vision primitive as trilobites and novel as the idea of a windless, uninhabited earth orbiting on. [...]

Some radicals complained that the nation's relatively abrupt concern for the environment represented a distraction from the issues of war and racism. A few rightists noted darkly that Earth Day was also Lenin's birthday, and warned that the entire happening was a Communist trick. [...]

Much of the day was given to theater and ritual. At the University of Wisconsin, 58 separate programs were staged, including a dawn "earth service" of Sanskrit incantations.

From EPA History:

One prominent politician, Gaylord Nelson, then Senator from Wisconsin, had been frustrated throughout the 1960s by the fact that only a "handful" of his Congressional colleagues had any interest in environmental issues. On the other hand, during his travels across the United States, he had been greatly impressed by the dedication and the expertise of the many student and citizen volunteers who were trying to solve pollution problems in their communities.

It was on one such trip, in August 1969, that Nelson came up with a strategy for bridging the gap separating grassroots activists from Congress and the general public. While en route to an environmental speech in Berkeley, California, the Senator was leafing through a copy of Ramparts magazine, when an article about anti-war teach-ins caught his eye. It occurred to him that the teach-in concept might work equally well in raising public awareness of environmental issues.

In September, in a ground-breaking speech in Seattle, Senator Nelson announced the concept of the teach-in and received coverage in Time and Newsweek and on the front page of the New York Times. Several weeks later, at his office on Capitol Hill, he incorporated a non-profit, non-partisan organization called Environmental Teach-In, Inc. He announced that it was to be headed by a steering committee consisting of himself, Pete McCloskey, a Congressman from California, and Sidney Howe, then the President of The Conservation Foundation.

The main purpose of the new organization, he declared, was to lay the groundwork for a major nationwide series of teach-ins on the environment early in 1970. The purpose of the teach-ins was, in Nelson's words, to "force the issue [of the environment] into the political dialogue of the country." Very quickly, Environmental Teach-In received pledges from the Senator himself ($15,000), from the United Auto Workers and the AFL-CIO ($2,000 each), as well as from The Conservation Foundation ($25,000) and other organizations.

Early in December, Senator Nelson selected a 25-year old named Denis Hayes, the dynamic former President of the Stanford student body, as national coordinator. Hayes, postponing plans to enter Harvard Law School, immediately set to work making plans for the inaugural Earth Day.

The "bible" of the First Earth Day: The Environmental Handbook:

Just to show that the book is real, here's my quick filming of it for youtube.

From Jan Markell:

All movements and campaigns have their own “bible.” For the Earth Day crowd the 1970 book The Environmental Handbook, is their guide. The book states that each tree and stream has its own guardian spirit. And Christianity is hugely at fault for environmental woes. They think we believe that it is God’s will to exploit nature (p. 20-21). Thanks to Christianity, we will see a worsening ecological crisis (p. 25).

The book also says, “No technical solution can rescue us from the misery of overpopulation. Freedom to breed will bring ruin to all. The only way we can preserve more precious freedoms is by relinquishing the freedom to breed.” (p.49, Garrett Hardin). That’s called population control. Just like the global warming crowd, they want a whole lot of us to go away.

On page 324, the book promotes polygamy and group marriage. It pushes for a “revolution of consciousness” and enlightenment while praising Gnostics, hip Marxists, Teilhard de Chardin Catholics, druids, Taoists, witches, Yogins, Bhikkus, Quakers, Sufis, Tibetans, Zens, Shamans, Bushmen, American Indians, Polynesians, anarchists, and alchemists. (p. 331).

But here’s the worst news. Take a look at the sacred earth prayer found in this book: “Mother, Father, God, Universal Power — remind us daily of the sanctity of all life. Touch our hearts with the glorious oneness of all creation as we strive to respect all the living beings on this planet. Penetrate our souls with the beauty of this earth, as we attune ourselves to the rhythm and flow of the seasons. Awaken our minds with the knowledge to achieve a world in perfect harmony and grant us the wisdom to realize that we can have heaven on earth.”

From The Genius of Earth Day:

Earth Day drew the kind of nearly unanimous blather usually given only to the flag—or to motherhood, before motherhood ran afoul of the population explosion.

Here's a youtube clip of Johnny Carson agreeing with Paul Ehrlich regarding his Population Bomb scaremongery.

From Carl Teichrib:

A number of years ago my hometown high school asked if I would be willing to sort through boxes of old textbooks. It turned out the school was trying to create storage space and had to find a way to get rid of thousands of outdated texts. Knowing I’m a book lover, the principal gave me first pick of anything I wanted. In the process of sorting, I came across dozens of copies of The Environmental Handbook. A quick glance through the yellowed pages and it was apparent I had stumbled onto something of importance. Gathering up these well-used paperbacks, I took them home for further study.

The Environmental Handbook was the official publication of Friends of the Earth, and was specifically prepared for public educators to use during the first Earth Day in 1970. The book’s Foreword stated that this handbook was "to serve as a source of ideas and tactics for the April 22 first annual teach-in on the environmental crisis." After reading through the 367-page book, it was obvious that the "ideas and tactics" presented were steeped in paganism. The teachings that emanated from this text were nothing more than an indoctrination into Earth-based New Age concepts of politics, religion, social structure, morality, and life ethics. It was an occult smorgasbord aimed at impressionable minds.

The Environmental Handbook: Prepared for the First National Environmental Teach-In, was edited by Garrett De Bell and was published by Friends of the Earth and Ballantine Books. The text is actually a compilation of New Age and deep ecology writers, each, in their own way, calling for a new religious and social structure based on pagan Earth principles.

The following quotations are a small sampling of the "ideas and tactics" presented throughout the handbook. These quotes are page numbered and referenced to their particular author and chapter title. While reading these excerpts, keep in mind that this book was used in public schools as an in-class textbook. Students across North America were taught from its pages, and tens of thousands adopted its philosophies and ideals as their own life standards.

What we do about ecology depends on our ideas of the man-nature relationship. More science and more technology are not going to get us out of the present ecologic crisis until we find a new religion, or rethink our old one. (p. 24)

No new set of basic values has been accepted in our society to displace those of Christianity. Hence we shall continue to have a worsening ecologic crisis until we reject the Christian axiom... (p. 25)

Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious, whether we call it that or not. We must rethink and refeel our nature and destiny. (p. 26) -Lynn White, Jr. "The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis"

How many discoveries, like quinine, or the antibiotic virtues of abalone blood, or paper, even, remain undiscovered in wilderness? How much more do we need to learn about evolutionary processes there? What was it that enabled Eskimo shaman, their minds a product of the taiga, tundra, and sea ice, to travel on spirit journeys under the ocean and to talk with the fishes and the potent beings who lived on the bottom? How did the shaman develop the hypnotic power they employed in their séances? What can we learn from the shaman who survive about thought transference and ESP? The answers are in the arctic Wilderness still left to us.

Wilderness is a bench mark, a touchstone. In wilderness we can see where we have come from, where we are going, how far we’ve gone. In wilderness is the only unsullied earth sample of the forces generally at work in the universe.

New perspectives come out of the wilderness. Jesus, Zoroaster, Moses, and Mohammed went to the wilderness and came back with messages. It was from the wilderness, and the people who knew wilderness, that the first concern about pollution and environmental decay came. (p. 148) -Kenneth Brower, "Wilderness"

Stabilizing the U.S. population should be declared a national policy. Immediate steps should be taken to:

1. Legalize voluntary abortion and sterilization and provide these services free.

2. Remove all restrictions on the provision of birth control information and devices; provide these services free to all, including minors.

3. Make sex education available at all appropriate levels, stressing birth control practices and the need to stabilize the population.

4. Launch a government-sponsored campaign for population control in the media comparable to the present antismoking campaign.

5. Offer annual bonuses for couples remaining childless and eliminate tax deductions for more than two children.

Control of world population growth is simply a matter of survival of the human race. Federal priorities must be made to reflect this fact. We propose:

1. Massive federal aid to supply birth control information, planning and materials to all countries that will accept it.

2. Foreign aid only to countries with major programs to curb population growth.

3. Increased research on birth control methods and on attitudes toward limiting births. (pp. 317-318) -Keith Murray, "Suggestions Toward an Ecological Platform"

Explore other social structures and marriage forms, such as group marriage and polyandrous marriage, which provide family life but may produce less children...We must hope that no one woman would give birth to more than one child. (p. 324)

It must be demonstrated ceaselessly that a continuing "growing economy" is no longer healthy, but a cancer. (p. 328)

To achieve the changes we must change the very foundations of our society and our minds...Nothing short of total transformation will do much good. What we envision...[is] cultural and individual pluralism, unified by a type of world tribal council. (p. 330)

It seems evident that there are throughout the world certain social and religious forces which have worked through history toward an ecologically and culturally enlightened state of affairs. Let these be encouraged: Gnostics, hip Marxists, Teilhard de Chardin Catholics, Druids, Taoists, Biologists, Witches, Yogins, Bhikkus, Quakers, Sufis, Tibetans, Zens, Shamans, Bushmen, American Indians, Polynesians, Anarchists, Alchemists...the list is long. All primitive cultures, all communal and ashram movements. Since it doesn’t seem practical or even desirable to think that direct bloody force will achieve much, it would be best to consider this a continuing "revolution of consciousness" which will be won not by guns but by seizing the key images, myths, archetypes, eschatologies, and ecstasies so that life won’t seem worth living unless one’s on the transforming energy’s side. (p. 331) -"Four Changes"

The call from The Environmental Handbook was clear: change the present religious, political, and social structures-adapting society to a New Age world-view of nature worship, communistic and socialistic political thinking, deviant family planning practices, and complete earth indoctrination within the education system.

Earth Day’s agenda of nature worship is diametrically opposite to what God’s word tells us. Romans 1:21-25 explicitly states,

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised.

Earth Day offers us, as Christians, a vivid example of the planned "social transformation" which is now taking place in our schools, churches, businesses, and families. God’s word, on the other hand, offers us, as Christians, the sure foundation and guiding light we need in order to navigate our way through this New Age civilization. Romans 8:38-39 assures us that "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." What a privilege it is to be able to rest on God’s promises!

[MuttTheHoople]

Earth Day means great Hamburgers at our house.

[hattend]

I remember the first Earth Day.

We got a half day off from school to go to information booths set up on campus and participate in a bicycle race.

Most of us just went home... that’s what I remember about the first Earth Day.