A big piece of modern American history is explored in Robert
Stone's Earth Days, which details the origins of the modern
environmental movement.  Yes, it's global, now. But there was a
time when a few not-quite-ex hippies (someday to be labeled
"tree huggers") and scientists and an astronaut and futurists
and conservationists and a Republican member of Congress thought
it would be a good idea to rally support for cleaning up the
country's land, air and water with a "Day."  Using pluck,
members of the "back to the land generation" (post-Woodstock)
picked April 22, 1970, and came up with a killer slogan.  "April
22 is Earth Day, the beginning of the end of pollution."
Photos: 12 bars of Christmas  Stone's film interviews the
principals, from street organizers to the fellow who founded The
Whole Earth Catalog and captures the confluence of events --
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the first images of the Earth
taken from the moon, the disappearance of the bald eagle, all of
which came to a head when Earth Day br