On Earth Day 1970, Brighton High School student officers Kris Iker and Kirk A. Astroth led a group of classmates in a parade in which they carried an unusual serpent over their heads - a huge collection of cans gathered from beside the highways.
They called their strung-together litter a "Roadsidus Rattler." Back then, litter seemed to be one of the worst environmental problems.Today they know much more is at stake than litter: The Earth itself is ill.
Kris Iker is married to Jon Gerde and is a mother. The family lives on a five-acre farm in Hood River, Ore. Astroth lives in Belgrade, Mont., and works with his state's 4-H natural resource program.
Like others involved in the original Earth Day celebration, both are still active in environmental causes.
In fact, of four Utahns and former Utahns who were in the Deseret News' reports of the first Earth Day and were tracked down for this 20th-anniversary article, all retained a strong interest in environmental matters. And they all have learned that the scope of environmental problems is far more complex than they realized then.
Kris Iker Gerde
"It's become certainly a lot more of a global issue, and one everyone is aware of, instead of just a few hippie-type people back in the '70s," Gerde said. Although a great distance remains to be traveled, at least progress has been made in public awarness, she added.
But little has been accomplished in terms of actual environmental improvements, she said. "Every time we come back to Utah, I'm always astounded by how significant the air-pollution problem is in Salt Lake City."
In the first Earth Day, she said. "I think we were all pretty naive . . . A lot of people polluted in ways they weren't even aware of. Nobody recycled. Nobody even knew what it was."
Today in her state of Oregon, recycling laws are in effect that require deposits on any recyclable container that leaves a grocery store.
Among the environemntal issues she is interested in are efforts of environmentalists and loggers to preserve old growth, and nuclear waste.
Kirk A. Astroth
"Obviously, clean air, clean water and those sorts of things are still critically important, but we've got a lot more issues to deal with now."
He is interested in ocean dumping, whaling, nuclear waste and wilderness.
"Twenty years ago I was a student of 18. I don't think I really understood the magnitude of the issues. Everything seems pretty simple when you're a teenager."
Now he realizes how interconnected many aspects of the environment are. "But at the same time I really haven't changed my perspective all that much."
He remains active in the environmental movement, belongs to a number of groups and has been planning to take part in Earth Day 1990.
"Since my first involvement in that Earth Day it's really been a motivating factor, to stay involved in environmental issues. In fact, I went to Utah State and got a degree in natural resources."
Billings Brown
University of Utah chemistry professor Billings Brown was one of the speakers marking the first Earth Day. At that time he said if Kennecott was willing to spend enough money, the company could "give the public the clean air it is entitled to."
Brown, who still lives in Salt Lake City, has revised his attitude a bit.
"I'm old enough to have mellowed somewhat, and stepped back and taken a larger look, including the cost of all this jazz," he said. "I have serious reservations on where this next generation of environmentalists is taking us, because of the cost. It's fine to have pristine air, pristine water, pristine soil, but have you considered the cost?"
He is concerned that overpopulation may destroy the Earth and that natural resources are being used up too rapidly. "I figure that in about the year 2050 the last tree in the world will be cut down and shipped to Japan to use for paper," he added.
Clark Ivory
Clark Ivory showed up on the front page of the Deseret News on April 22, 1970, as a preschooler sending a letter to then-President Richard Nixon. Students at Parleys Pre-School, 2474 E. 3640 South, told the president, "It isn't enough to keep the earth clean on the outside. We understand that we must be clean ourselves with good habits and good ideals for people and nature."
Today Ivory is in business with his father, developer Ellis Ivory. "I think most people my age (25) are pretty sympathetic to the environment," he said.
"Yet at the same time, being in real estate, I see the need for flexibility and reasonable development."
He too thinks the '90s will be the era of the environment. "Not only are just select interest groups taking interest now, but corporations are taking interest in the environment.