Earth Day Rallies Protest Global Pollution Dangers

Thousands of people from Budapest, Hungary, to Wichita, Kan., marked the annual Earth Day on Saturday with protests against the Exxon tanker spill, ozone-destroying chemicals and other environmental concerns.

In New York City, about 1,000 demonstrators rallied at Exxon’s midtown headquarters, waving balloons and chanting “Boycott Exxon” and “Life Not Profits.” The protesters carried placards denouncing the company responsible for the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

“It’s fitting that we’re here today,” Jeremy Rifkin, a rally organizer, told the crowd. “This company in the last few weeks has shown the world a total, utter, unconscionable disregard for the environment in which we live.”

The demonstrators marched to the United Nations, with organizers estimating that the crowd swelled to more than 5,000 people by the end of the march, but police put the number at 2,500.

Listen to Singers

The protesters listened to speakers and a host of singers, including Peter Yarrow of the group Peter, Paul and Mary, and Roger McGuinn, formerly of the Byrds.

Among those speaking out against global pollution were former Rep. Bella S. Abzug, actress Morgan Fairchild and actor Ed Begley Jr.

“We’re going to start our conservation effort at the pumps of Exxon,” Begley vowed.

The Exxon Valdez ran aground near Valdez, Alaska, on March 24, spilling more than 10 million gallons of crude oil into wildlife-rich Prince William Sound in the worst such spill in American history. Thousands of birds and hundreds of sea otters have died.

In Rome, about 1,000 people and 40 environmentalists cheered as 20 protesters dressed in cardboard costumes resembling aerosol cans and refrigerators ran up the Spanish Steps and smashed through a paper hoop symbolizing the Earth’s ozone layer.

In Budapest’s Vorosmarty Square, several hundred people turned out for a demonstration sponsored by the Radical Party. Demonstrators included Ilona (Cicciolina) Staller, a Hungarian-born porn actress and a Radical Party member of Italy’s Parliament, and Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist Maurice H. F. Wilkins of Britain.

Near Wichita, Kan., about 1,200 people gathered outside chemical plants owned by Racon Inc. and Vulcan Chemicals to demand they stop using chlorofluorocarbons within a year.

Spokesmen for the two companies said a ban on chlorofluorocarbons is not realistic because reliable alternatives have not been found, and that the chemical industry is spending billions of dollars trying to find other substances.

In Alaska on Saturday, Gov. Steve Cowper asked Alaskans to observe five minutes of silence today in remembrance of the way things were before the Exxon Valdez spill fouled hundreds of miles of pristine coastline.

The Coast Guard and hundreds of volunteers, meanwhile, scrubbed tar-like oil from beaches. Vice Adm. Clyde Robbins, the Coast Guard’s on-scene coordinator, also said that by midday Saturday the 425-foot Soviet skimmer Vaydaghubsky had picked up about 10,000 gallons of oil at Gore Point.

Many fishermen have expressed frustration with Exxon and the Coast Guard over a lack of progress since the accident. They have been scooping up oil with buckets.

A line of violent storms kicked up six-foot swells in Prince William Sound on Saturday, and scuttled aerial reconnaissance of the spill.