Panic is from my dreams that have been
taking me back to my youth, specifically the Boy Scouts, I am awe struck with
some of the wild meanderings and misdeeds that were undertaken during that time
of my life. In the early 1970’s, as I
neared earning my Eagle Scout award, our Troop became caught up in a new ecology
movement. Today it has morphed into "ecoconscious",
which is defined by Merriam Webster as: marked by or showing concern for the
environment.
Back then, there was a symbol that
seemed to be everywhere embracing this new “ecology movement.” That symbol was a small letter “e” inside the
larger letter “O,” the letters standing for “environment” and “organism” and
putting them in superposition, thereby forming a shape reminiscent of the Greek
letter Θ (Theta). On November 7, 1969, cartoonist
Ron Cobb invented the symbol and published it in the Los Angles Free Press, thus it was placed it in the public
domain. It appeared as a green U.S. flag
for the first time in the April 21, 1970 issue of Look magazine.
When I Googled “ecology symbol” it
brought-up 28 pages and I thought what a better time to dust off that 70’s ecology
symbol and bring it back into mainstream?
Not only for the heck of it, extending an olive branch to the green /
sustainability, but the ecology movement brought us new words such as
recycling, climate change, and acid rain.
Many of those words are included in today’s green movement.
The ecology movement of the 70’s also
caused a shift in our cultural and those collectively willing to do something
about it took leadership roles. Boy
Scouts and the many foot soldiers did things they could do locally, with
gusto. For example, wherever our Troop went, we
picked up teeny tiny itsee bitsee’s (trash) and planted countless variety of
trees on the land of a Christmas Tree Farm around Valparaiso, IN. That tree farm belonged to a childhood friend
of the Scoutmaster. We were told by the
ecology movement leadership that planting trees reduced the influence of
climate change, for us it was an excuse to get muddy, and it just felt good
engaging with the earth.
Those were important years because: a) The Environmental
Protection Agency was founded in 1970. b)
In a 1971 public service announcement, more successful than Smokey Bear’s, showed
a Native American canoeing down a polluted stream; a single tear rolled down
his face. c) America was conducting
nuclear tests in the Aleutian Islands. Google
Earth that place, Yowza!. d) A group of
anti-whaling environmentalists claimed the name “Greenpeace” in 1972. e) My Canadian buds tell me that in
Vancouver, BC there were billboards saying “Ecology? Look it up!
You’re involved.”
Today, my high country mountain
lifestyle is, once again, being gauged by that “ecology symbol” and the
ecoconscious of it all. That symbol is
on back flap of my 1972 external frame backpack. Somehow, that original ecology symbol wasn’t
as enduring as it should have been. The
green theta ornamented flags, buttons, t-shirts, walls, and yes,
backpacks for several years before it disappeared from the mainstream.
In my dreams, a woman eyeing my
backpack asks, “Where are you going?” I
blurt out 1972. I laugh then, silence
fills the dream, and the woman awaits a correct answer: place fixed on a
map. How can I tell her that this is no
laughing matter? In the early 1970’s ecology
was beginning to become entangled with society’s norms – for the better of
America. Due to historically outrageous
decisions by our countries leaders when it came to fossil fuels, ecology movement
was forgotten, but not lost. Not many remained
too kept up the mainstream fight and as the end of the oil embargo neared,
ecology quickly faded from memory as did the symbol. Depending on whom you talk to, the ecology /
ecoconscious has been going at the grassroots level since it faded from
mainstream, and today’s green / sustainability movement have taken the reins. Thus, I’m guessing the 28 pages of revised /
updated symbols. I ask that the
leadership of today’s green movement please “Keep er Steady” and embrace the
original symbol.
Remembering that the “ecology
symbol” was popularized in the seventies is okay. It was almost like another Zodiac and/or
Peace symbol. It seemed to messenger in a
new dawning awareness of our Mother Earth and the much needed Environmental Goodness. What a better time to revive it than
now? Please, will each and every one of you
that are involved with the conservation of historic resources within the built
environment bring the green theta back into our visual vocabulary? Will you please do this for Mother Earth and
a panicking middle aged Boy Scout dreamer?
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