Earth Day Update

Stan Freberg here. Today is "Earth Day," a day almost forgotten by most people, except for "tree huggers," as we environmentalists are called. Yeah, I'm a "tree hugger." [:60 SPOT BREAK] Freberg here. Back in 1970, I took part in the first "Earth Day" celebration along with Ralph Nader, Dr. Paul Ehrlich (author of "The Population Bomb"), and others. Almost three decades later, what we should also be celebrating is the original publication of Rachel Carson's landmark book, "Silent Spring." Without biologist Carson's warning, there probably wouldn't have been any environmental movement, but we have a long way to go. TIME magazine says by the year 2021, 1 billion cars will be in use, spewing their deadly fumes. But here's a more sobering figure: every minute, 52 acres of the world's forests are lost. So during this commentary, we lost another 52 acres. Hmm. Happy "Earth Day," from tree hugger Stan Freberg here. Copyright (C)1998, Stan Freberg/Freberg, Ltd.(but not very) Distributed by Dick Brescia Associates and Radio Spirits,Inc.