Press Release

June 26,1997

Butterfly Invited to UN Earth Summit for Butterfly Release

The Non-Governmental Organization's Steering Committee for the Commission on Sustainable Development organized an Exhibition during the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly, or Earth Summit +5, from June 23 to 27, 1997. They had invited the Butterfly Gardeners Association, BGA, to do a butterfly release as part of the celebration. Many world leaders, including U.S. President Bill Clinton, attended this Special Session, which assessed the progress since UNCED in Rio in 1992, and implementation of it's Agenda 21.

The Expo invited many organizations and exhibitors that had innovative solutions and ideas pertaining to Sustainability to participate at the Global Gathering. On Friday 13, 1997 we received a call from Sharon Getz to do a butterfly release at the Earth Summit for the opening on June 23, but that date was changed to June 26 because President Clinton would arrive on that day. It was hoped that Clinton and many of the world leaders and delegates could attend the butterfly release, which would have been a key part of the festivities. We suggested that children take part in the ceremonies and that each child have their own butterfly to release. Organizers had contacted UNICEF to help make this possible.

The event occur Ed on Thursday' June 26, 1997 at 12:00 P.M.. noon in Dag Hammarskjold Park at 47 Street & First Ave.

Fearing complaints about the "environmental correctness of a Butterfly release at Robert Moses Park, a playground with no grass, it was suggested that Dag Hammarskjold Park would be a better place. The event was previously scheduled for 2 P.M., Monday, June 23, 1997, but was moved to Thursday because of the Presidential visit. Participants included Alan Moore, founder of the BGA, Trina Paulus, author of Hope for the Flowers; George Ripley, founder of Environmental Patriots Inc., carrying a giant American flag with a green fringe; two butterfly dancers, and musicians. The butterflies were released at the sound of gongs by Gongmaster Don Conreaux of The Mysterious Tremendum Consort and School World Peace Bell Gardens Initiative and Millennium Celebration Project. Alan Moore read the following The Earth Proclamation

We are One people... We share One planet... We have One common dream... We want to live in peace... We choose to protect and heal the Earth... We decide to create a better world for all... We will do our best to make that dream come true... We will change what needs to be changed... We will ream, to love, share and forgive... We are One people, we want to live and we will.

Coverage was provided by the LA Times, CNN, NBC, BBC, WTN(World Television Network), Der Spiegel, and other crews from Sweden and Austria. NBC Channel Four was interested in exclusive coverage, but other stations had already been contacted. What actually occur Ed were three separate butterfly releases to accommodate the various television crews and photographers.

Alan Moore, founder of the Butterfly Gardeners Assoc., also nicknamed the Bee Gees, said that the invitation was like a dream coming true. We have previously approached the White house, to do a Butterfly garden and release there. White house, environmental staff members gave a tentative green light to the project and forwarded it to the National Park Service, which is responsible for the maintenance of the White house, grounds. Someone there questioned whether a Butterfly garden, which is a natural garden, would be appropriate, as the grounds as rather formal, and this would set a new precedent. We recently contacted the White house, again, hoping that perhaps the time is right now for the garden to get final approval. The invitation to do a butterfly release at the Earth Summit could help make this dream come true.

"When we were invited to do the Butterfly release they had no idea what are organization was about. They just knew we could do a Butterfly release. When I told them that in August of 93 I had a vision to use the Butterfly as a new symbol for the environment, to promote Earth stewardship and sustainability, and world peace, l guess I could say they were pleasantly surprised," said Moore. I have been working on this project now for almost four years full-time and at a cost of over $150,000 including lost time at work and total expenses. This has been quite a sacrifice myself and my family. I have used up my entire life savings and assumed a heavy debt to make this all possible. Some have told me that it was an impossible dream, but Man of La Mancha happens to be my favorite play having seen it four times. Now we are an organization that has members in over thirty-five states and are helping to plan the Millenium Celebration for the year 200.0, a round the world event starting in Australia with a Celebration of Dreamtime. "

I believed that the butterflies could build bridges between people that have never worked harmoniously together. I envisioned businesses working with environmentalists, children helping seniors install Butterfly gardens at nursing homes, Butterfly therapy" in prisons for inmates, Butterfly projects in the nations schools, even huge butterfly-shaped gardens at airports that could be seen from the air to welcome passengers as they land. We have accomplished or are in the planning stages of all these things and more.

It is our hope that we will soon join the NGO, change our name to the Butterfly Gardeners International, and work with people from all over the world and other NGOs. We believe that the Millenium can be ushered in on Butterfly wings and that our shared dream for world peace and planetary sustainability can be achieved. There is little doubt that the Butterfly will be the symbol for the Millenium and the theme will be planetary transformation.

Future events include a Butterfly release in Washington DC, San Francisco, and Woodstock, New York. The Washington event will celebrate our hope for world peace by the year 2000. This will occur on Hiroshima Day, which is also the fourth anniversary of the butterfly project, and may take place in front of the White house.

We are currently setting up an international board of directors that will contain Butterfly conservationists, earth caretakers, peace workers, and global visionaries.

Because of their astounding transformation from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis (pupa) to the incredible color spangled elegance of the Butterfly they can be the mascot of mankind's own unfolding to more caring beings. Stewardship of butterflies becomes linked to the larger issues of abatement of habitat destruction and fostering cultural and bio-diversity. It is with hope and giddy anticipation that this new group sails forth to discover what together we can do to make a difference.

We may " come to see them as embodying all the beauty and complexity of nature itself. It is said that a Butterfly can, with a flap of its wings, change the world . . . that the ripple it sends out can spawn a hurricane."

"Rarely if ever do we get a chance to restore to nature even a tiny part of what we have taken away."

National Geographic Magazine Dec 93.

A special thanks to Kinko's at 305 E.46 St. for the use of a conference room to prepare the butterflies for launch and for donating copying and faxing services for our press releases and other information. I would also like to thank the businesses in the Lehigh Valley/Pa. for their support in making this all happen.

For more information contact:

Alan Moore

Alan Moore / Member of the Peace and Justice Commission/City of Berkeley
Butterfly Gardeners Association/Friends of Tree Island
Earth Rainbow Network/Action Coalition for Global Change
1563 Solano Ave. #477
Berkeley, CA 94707
510-528-7730
Email: bflyspirit@aol.com

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