What were Mead and Batesons connections to the environmental movement?
Mead was very much aware of the threats to human life from abusing the environment and she was particularly active in relation to radioactive wastes and the atmosphere. When John McConnell came up with the idea of Earth Day, during the preparations for the Stockholm Conference on the Environment, Margaret Mead saw immediately that a celebration on the date of the equinox would transcend cultural and geographical barriers.. She participated actively in establishing the International Earth Day tradition at the UN. As International Chairman for the first Earth Day in 1978, Mead rang the Peace Bell UN Headquarters in New York, proclaiming: “EARTH DAY reminds the people of the world of the continuing care which is vital to Earth’s safety.” Find out more information on the origins of Earth Day and the Earth Day 2001 celebration. Bateson tended to keep his distance from organizations and movements of any kind, but beginning in the late sixties his thinking and writing were closely connected w
