EARTH TAKES CENTER STAGE

WEEK OF EVENTS TO FOCUS ON ENVIRONMENT

Twenty years after Earth Day fired up the American environmental movement, organizers of Earth Day 1990 hope this week to launch a decade of new ecological activism that will force world leaders to confront a growing list of threats to the planet's health.

This Earth Day will be more global, more mainstream and more professionally organized than its student-run predecessor of two decades ago, and will focus on some problems -- thinning of the planet's upper-atmosphere ozone layer, for one -- that were virtually unheard of then.

A week of ecology-related local efforts, from stream cleanups to a commute-without-cars day on Thursday, will culminate Sunday in dozens of rallies, including one on the Capitol steps featuring movie star Tom Cruise and a roster of other celebrities, a staple of the environmental movement. Organizers hope to draw 200 million people in 135 countries, 10 times the number of Americans who participated in 1970, and are counting on millions more to view the activities on television.

"We want all of these people to leave the campaign a bit farther moved down the road toward personal commitment and activism," said Denis Hayes, who headed the staff for the original Earth Day and put aside his job as an environmental lawyer to take the helm of this one.

Earth Day 1970 was a daylong national festival: Congress adjourned so politicians could travel to hometown events, New York Mayor John V. Lindsay banned cars from Fifth Avenue, and in Washington, 1,700 college students and schoolchildren marched to the Interior Department. The momentum helped launch the Environmental Protection Agency, pass the Clean Air Act of 1970, and toughen the Clean Water Act. It spawned hundreds of local grass-roots groups and bolstered the standing of national environmental organizations.

Twenty years later, many visible signs of pollution -- filthy rivers, lead in the air -- have vanished.

But the roster of environmental problems, though more subtle, has lengthened: toxic waste, global climate change caused by the use of chemicals and burning of fossil fuels, disposal of nonbiodegradable products such as throwaway diapers and plastic wrap. Dramatic disasters such as last year's Exxon Valdez oil spill put the spotlight on ecology again.

Thanks also to economic prosperity here and warmer East-West relations, the green lobby is back in style.

A Washington Post poll of 1,016 adults last month found that 73 percent of Americans believe the environment has gotten worse since 1970, and 57 percent describe the situation as a crisis, although people still rank the environment below drugs, poverty and the federal deficit as the nation's top concern.

Hayes wants Earth Day 1990 to be so broad-based that it will appeal equally to a conservative third-grade teacher in the Midwest and a member of the radical anti-development group Earth First!, known for its flamboyant, sometimes illegal, protest tactics. Earth Day can be used as a vehicle for a neighborhood cleanup and as a lobbying tool to toughen the Clean Air Act bill now before Congress, Hayes said.

Environmental advocacy is now so mainstream that even the FBI, which monitored some Earth Day 1970 organizers as potential subversives, plans to install an environmental exhibit in its lobby this spring.

Yet with businesses from the chemical industry to the nuclear lobby touting their love of the planet, some environmentalists worry that Earth Day will become a sort of ecological Christmas, its moral message fighting for attention with a cacophany of commercialism.

The true test of Earth Day's success, environmentalists say, will be whether the day's glow translates into lasting heat on corporations and political leaders, as well as individual choices in the voting booth and supermarket.

To that end, organizers of Earth Day 1990 sent lesson plans to thousands of schools, persuaded citizens to sign "green pledges" to become more active environmentalists, are negotiating with corporations to endorse green goals and are planning a new label program for consumer goods. A national tour by Jesse L. Jackson was designed to try to draw more minority support for a mainly white movement.

Earth Day 1990 leaders issued a 12-page "Agenda for the Green Decade" with goals ranging from worldwide change to local environmental ordinances. Hayes said the agenda's three most important points are worldwide access to birth control, getting rid of nuclear weapons and ending use of chemicals that destroy the planet's upper ozone layer.

"It isn't just birds and bunnies," said Christina Desser, Earth Day 1990 executive director. "It's a quality-of-life issue."

President Bush, who issued an Earth Day proclamation in January, will be fishing in the Everglades on Earth Day, but plans a week of appearances that advisers hope will shore up his reputation as an environmentalist and stake claim to the ecology issue in the Republican tradition of Teddy Roosevelt.

Bush campaigned for office as an environmentalist, but 57 percent of Americans say he isn't one, according to a recent Washington Post poll.

Local Earth Day activities will offer something for everyone: protests for the political, stream cleanups for neighborhood activists and star-studded entertainment on the Mall for fans of eco-rock.

On Thursday, local governments will hold a competition with Portland, Ore., to keep the largest percentage of commuters out of cars and get them onto lower-polluting buses, subways and bicycles. "The payoff," said Sherry Conway of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, "is cleaner air."

Keynote events in the District on Saturday will include a cleanup of Rock Creek Park and a noon rally in the city's River Terrace neighborhood to protest a proposed Pepco power plant expansion, which is now on hold, and the aging municipal incinerator.

There will be two free ecological expos on the Mall over the three-day Earth weekend, one including displays by environmental groups, the other promoting environmental programs of 10 federal agencies.

Maryland officials brag that they have the nation's single largest Earth Day project: 30,000 volunteers from Scout troops to churches signed up for "Give a Day to the Bay" on Saturday.

The 1,001 projects in Maryland include 412 road and highway cleanups, 176 tree-plantings, and a variety of other activities from bird box building to painting signs on storm drains warning, "Don't dump, Cheapeake Bay drainage."

In Virginia, several suburban governments plan their own celebrations: Cleanups are scheduled at Four-Mile Run in Arlington and Accotink Creek in Fairfax County, among others. Loudoun County, the most ambitious, plans two days of activities, including a seminar on global climate change, an "Earth Days Festival of Songs" and an astronomy watch at Oatlands Plantation near Leesburg.

The nation's most popular local activity is tree-planting to cool the planet, but there are plenty of others from the unusual to the political.

Some California schoolchildren are releasing ladybugs into the air as an alternative to garden pesticides. In Baltimore, 3,000 children wearing costumes made of recyclable materials will parade to the Inner Harbor.

Detroit environmentalists plan to plant a tree for each child killed in gang wars. Central Michigan University students hope to encircle the campus holding hands in a show of concern for the environment. At the University of Rochester in New York, folk musician Glen McClure will perform a concert on an instrument made entirely of garbage.

Events are planned around the world as well, from a protest against the slaughter of elephants in Burma to tree-plantings in Brazil, where rain forests have been devastated by encroaching development and agriculture. There are rallies in Buenos Aires; Ottawa; China; and San Jose, Costa Rica, among other places. In London, shoppers will be encouraged to remove unnecessary packaging from products and return them to the store.

In Berlin, 9,999 trees are to be planted in a mowed area along the East-West border. In Japan, some citizens are campaigning against disposable chopsticks.

The organizing force behind this, Earth Day 1990, has a staff of 30, and is employing the tools of the modern age -- fax machines, computers and sophisticated direct mail -- to get its message across.

Officials say they have raised just more than $2.5 million, some of it from major corporations. But they say they have turned away more than $4 million because the corporate donors did not pass environmental scrutiny.

A second Earth Day organization, called Earth Day 20, plans an environmental exposition and televised concert in a natural amphitheater at the side of the Columbia Gorge in Washington State. It also is sponsoring a climb of Mount Everest to pick up trash left by previous expeditions.

Monday -- Energy Efficiency Day.

Tuesday -- Recycling Day.

Wednesday -- Water Conservation Day.

Thursday -- Alternative Transportation Day.

Friday -- Toxics Information Day.

Saturday -- Nature Appreciation and Outdoors Day.

April 22 -- Earth Day.

Major events for Earth Day in the D.C. area, all free. For further information, call 331-EDAY: Tuesday

Noon -- Captain John Smith arrives at Alexandria City docks, Torpedo Factory, as part of nine-day reenactment of his 1608 voyage up the Chesapeake Bay. Wednesday

Noon -- Citizen Action/Clean Water Action demonstration against the Bush administration regarding water policy issues, Lafayette Square. Thursday

8:30 a.m.: Bike-to-Work rally at Freedom Plaza, 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW; a second rally for carless commuters at noon, same place.

11 a.m.-2 p.m.: Alexandria-sponsored alternative transportation fair, Market Square in Alexandria. Montgomery County bus rides are free. Friday

9 a.m.-6 p.m.: Opening of three-day Earth Day Expo on the Mall, east of the Air and Space Museum.

10 a.m.-5 p.m.: Opening of three-day Earthfest '90, sponsored by the federal Council on Environmental Quality, Washington Monument grounds. Saturday

8 a.m.: "America's Clean Water 10K Run," sponsored by American Clean Water Foundation, West Potomac Park.

Various times: Give a Day for the Bay, cleanup activities in Maryland. Call (301) 974-5300 for locations.

9:30 a.m.-3 p.m.: Rock Creek Park cleanup. Carter Barron Amphitheater, 16th Street and Colorado Avenue NW (426-6835).

10 a.m.-3 p.m.: National Zoo, various events, Saturday and Sunday.

All day: Loudoun County Earth Days, Simpson Middle School. Cost: $3 for adults. Continues countywide on Sunday.

Noon: River Terrace Park NE, two-hour rally against Pepco power plant expansion and municipal incinerator, followed by community fair.

Noon-3 p.m.: Earth Day/Arbor Fair, Bon Air Park, Arlington. April 22

11 a.m.: Rally with Tom Cruise, Meg Ryan, John Denver and others. West steps of the Capitol.

1-5:30 p.m.: Happy Earth Day, South Run District Park, Springfield.

1-5 p.m.: Earth Day celebration, Fort Ward Park, Alexandria.

Noon-6 p.m.: Rockville Science Day and Children's Health Fair, Montgomery College Rockville campus.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.