{"id":1128,"date":"2026-07-01T01:31:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T01:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=1128"},"modified":"2026-07-01T01:31:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T01:31:26","slug":"from-the-archive-the-outspoken-musicians-and-their-worldly-cause-earth-day-1990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=1128","title":{"rendered":"From the Archive: The outspoken musicians and their worldly cause, Earth Day 1990"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written in April 1990 for The Diamondback, the independent student newspaper at the University of Maryland<\/em>

The rain clouds came and went, the wet, soggy afternoon mud turned cold and hard by nightfall, and as performer after performer came on stage to pledge their allegiance to the planet they have no intention of losing, it was the Earth that played centerstage.
Earth Day 1990 couldn’t have been more perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just an event, it\u2019s an inflection point of history that puts an end to a decade of greed, hypocrisy and audacity and moves into a green decade,\u201d said Dennis Hayes, member of Concerts for the Environment. \u201cWe can no longer continue to do what has been done in the last decade. We demand a change. We desperately need one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merriweather Post Pavilion played host to the concert of the \u201990s Saturday afternoon. From the folkish musings of the Indigo Girls to the hip hop reggae sounds of KRS One and Ziggy Marley, the concert bridged all forms of music to unite in one common cause-to save the environment.<\/p>\n

While on stage it was indeed the music that was the forefront, backstage it was the issues at hand that was foremost on the performers\u2019 mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not here for the music as much as we are here to show the world how important the Earth is as our mother \u2014 our original mother \u2014 and that we must take care of it,\u201d the energetic Marley said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to make today Earth Day, every day should be Earth Day. Keep the message alive that people should take care of their mamas just like you take care of your mama.\u201d<\/p>\n

The performers stressed that it was a lack of education more than anything else that has caused the environment to be in such disarray.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a sad state of affairs when the entertainment business has to bring the issue to a forefront, and not the political leaders whose job it is to help protect our world,\u201d said Michael Stipe, lead singer of R.E.M. \u201cOur political leaders are not answering quick enough. It’s up to the individual to make a difference, I firmly believe that.<\/p>\n

\u201cEducation is the key, and we know how bad it is in this country,\u201d Stipe added. \u201cThere are so many simple things the individual can do to change the world. But it is ignorance that is out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Billy Bragg went beyond the government to blame the large multinational businesses for the world’s severe environmental problems. Pointing out that it is the multinationals that own the government more than vice-versa, change begins with boycotts and attacks on big business.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the big corporations are geared to making us buy more and more things, consume more things and make things to look more like artifacts than anything else,\u201d Bragg said. \u201cIf we are going to save the world, we have to control our own consumerism, and stop from wanting and wanting and wanting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a cause that obviously anyone with sense is going to support,\u201d said singer\/songwriter Robyn Hitchcock. \u201cIt\u2019s not really a cause, it’s more fundamental than that. I mean you’re not going to get a lobby of anti-environmentalist saying \u2018Look here, we on behalf of Exxon would like to put an opposing view-there are far to many seabirds cluttering up the horizon with their blasted feathers.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written in April 1990 for The Diamondback, the independent student newspaper at the University of Maryland The rain clouds came and went, the wet, soggy afternoon mud turned cold and hard by nightfall, and as performer after performer came on stage to pledge their allegiance to the planet they have no intention of losing, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[123,233,203,41,220,125],"class_list":["post-1128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-billy-bragg","tag-krs-one","tag-peter-buck","tag-r-e-m","tag-robyn-hitchcock","tag-ziggy-marley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1128"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1130,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions\/1130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}