To Benefit the Earth : Activist Neal Pargman has raised $160,000 in the past four years for environmental research.

In 1972, George McGovern was trying to save the country, Richard Nixon his job.

Meanwhile, Neal Pargman, an environ mental activist, aimed higher.

Pargman, then 27, organized Save the Earth, a one-man crusade to rescue the environment from the abuses of big business and neglectful consumers. But his solo act went nowhere, ignored by a nation that wanted to bury the ‘60s.

Today, 20 years later, saving the environment is popular again. Operating out of his cramped Woodland Hills office, Pargman has raised about $160,000 in the last four years for the nonprofit foundation, which subsidizes research programs at UCLA, UC Davis, Duke University, Columbia and the University of Washington.

The money for Save the Earth comes from fund-raisers well-stocked with celebrities. The next event, Aug. 7 at the Hotel Bel-Air, will include many stars of daytime television selling their scripts, clothing and jewelry. The last two benefits raised more than $20,000. About 30% of the $100 entry fees for this one will go directly to university research.

“We couldn’t exist without the money from Save the Earth,” said Richard Berk, director of the UCLA Center for the Study of the Environment and Society, whose 1991 survey examined how consumers used water-saving measures during the drought of the late 1980s.

“All the high-tech stuff won’t matter unless you get people to change their behavior, and that’s what his group is trying to do.”

Pargman, who supports himself working as an extra on the CBS-TV soap “The Young and the Restless,” is content with a small operation. From the beginning, he has sought to distance his organization from high-profile groups such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. To appeal to a broad spectrum of people, he wanted to avoid politics as much as possible.

“I always liked to do my own thing,” said Pargman, 47. “I haven’t liked the politics of the big groups. The bureaucracy they fight becomes part of their own group.”

His strategy has centered on marketing the Save the Earth logo--a picture of the planet surrounded by a rainbow--on merchandise to increase public awareness of environmental issues. Save the Earth has a licensing program with manufacturers to make T-shirts, backpacks, wallets and tote bags with the logo.

In 1986, Pargman said, stores began to sell T-shirts featuring the logo. By 1990, he said, he had reached tentative agreements with department stores to introduce more items with the sticker. But before that could happen, a better product came along.

“The stores took all the Persian Gulf War merchandise,” Pargman said. “The environmental business went backward.”

Still, Pargman’s group has received a lot of support in Hollywood. Melody Thomas Scott, who plays Nikki on “The Young and the Restless,” is the national spokesperson for Save the Earth. Scott said she ignored the environment until she met Pargman four years ago.

“Like many other Americans, I wasn’t thinking about the environment before,” Scott said. She said she used disposable diapers for her children “until I realized what a waste that is.”

Scott said she devoted her time to Save the Earth because the money raised goes directly to university research programs.

“Research is the most important thing right now,” Scott said. “We just have to keep getting our name out there.”

Where and When

What: Save the Earth Foundation benefit.

Location: Hotel Bel-Air, 701 Stone Canyon Road, Bel-Air.

Hours: 7 to 11 p.m. Aug. 7.

Cost: $100; tickets must be purchased in advance.

Call: (818) 88-EARTH.