The Green Movement...what's old is new again (solar, recycling, organic)

[Dayton Sux]

Seems that we have returned to the 1970s?

Back then there was a big green movment, though it wasn't called that.

There was an interest in cycling as an alternative form of transportation, including some early bike paths being built.

There was a revival of interest in public transit and the early proposals for "light rail" in some cities.

There was also an interest in solar energy and other alternative forms of of energy, energy conservation and conservation in general, community gardening and organic foods, etc. There was also an interest in urban conservation..restoring old houses and neighborhoods, and recycling things. Recycling became big then.

A lot of this came out of the "ecology" movement that surfaced in the late 1960s into 1970, and also a bit out of the 1960s counterculture, the more self-reliant/self-sufficient aspects of it, such as the back-to-the-land movement and the "Whole Earth Catalogue" people.

One of the results of this was in policy..the big environmental legislation came out of it (like the Endangered Species Act, the law that set up the EPA, and so forth).

But this was also a cultural movement as well as a political movement, probably mostly cultural and life-style oriented...with publications like Whole Earth Review, Rain, Mother Earth News, etc...and a renewed interest even in certain types of acoustic music, like bluegrass and pre-bluegrass folk music, perhaps riffing on the interest in being unplugged and living off the grid.

This all seemed to lose speed in the very late 1970s and then disappeared from the media in the 1980s and into the 1990s, it seems.

So, interesting to see this make a comeback. Anyone here old enough to remember that first Green movement back in the 1970s?

[lollykoko]

I am old enough to remember. Hubby and I built a soda can coffee table for our home and seating from plywood sheets. We were living in a foreign country at the time; couldn't afford new, couldn't find used.

[Submariner]

It never stopped in some areas.

The hippys of the 70's formed an Organic Farming group here, eventually they became the state's Organic Certifying agency. I know farmers who sell at Farmers Markets here that have been going at it since the 70's and 80's.

I am a member of mofga.com (http://www.MOFGA.com - broken link) and market organic produce.

With the recent growth we have seen in vendors and Farmers Markets; I think that the green movement is bigger now than it was in the 70s.

A lot of people are diving into small-scale off-grid organic sustainable living and food production.

[in_newengland]

We never stopped doing it either. I don't know why anyone stopped but it's good to see it starting up again. (The Mother Earth News--I used to subscribe to it, loved that magazine.)

[Dayton Sux]

I think things were cooking off-the-radar after the 1970s, as you all note, but it seemed more visible back in the 1970s. I think cycling seems to have made a big comeback, as has community gardening, which is called "urban agriculture" now (though i think this is slightly different than the old community garden movement).

[lollykoko]

Originally Posted by in_newengland

We never stopped doing it either. I don't know why anyone stopped but it's good to see it starting up again. (The Mother Earth News--I used to subscribe to it, loved that magazine.)

I was able to attend the Mother Earth News Fair last year in PA. What a fantastic experience it was for me. Thousands of people with an interest in being stewards to the earth; wonderful feelings of hope and assurance were in the air, IMO.

This year there will be Green Festivals in several different locations. This is not the same as the event I attended last year, but is a full page in the recent M.E.N. hard copy magazine:

San Francisco, April 9-10
Chicago May 14-15
Seattle May 21-22
New York Oct. 1-2
Los Angeles Oct. 29-30
San Francisco Nov. 12-13

Green Festival - Home