Take Back the Earth Day 2004: Sustainability and Solidarity
Written by Nick Hess
Saturday, 24 April 2004
On April 24, 2004 hundreds of people converged on the campus of Indiana University- Purdue University, Indianapolis for the Take Back the Earth Day. Conceived as a grass roots response to the corporate polluter-financed Earth Day events, participants in Take Back the Earth Day attended workshops on subjects including: solar home design, and the impact of new terrain highway construction. In one workshop, Dr. Christine Glaser described flaws in current economic systems which hide many of the negative consequences of technology and offered solutions that would make the social and environmental impacts a consideration in current economic thought.
The Take Back the Earth Day event was capped off by a presentation by Ralph Nader. With his lifetime of achievements in the fields of corporate reform and grass roots mobilization, Mr. Nader provided both an overview of the state of the world as well as specific action items for an audience of over 400 people. Mr. Nader described his efforts to provide a earth and people friendly perspective to the national dialogue and the efforts of the representative of concentrated power to roll back the progress gained in the 1960 and 1970's. Mr. Nader outlined his vision of a strong participatory democracy based on justice and equal rights.
