Earth Day Festivities Planned

This year's Earth Day festivities will include a panel discussion on the environment by a number of political and entertainment figures, organizers said yesterday.

Among the speakers scheduled to appear at the event are singer Steve Miller, Peter Garrett of the band Midnight Oil and WBZ news correspondent Liz Walker, who will moderate.

The educational forum, titled "Earth Day Sound action and the Next Generation," will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. this Friday in Sanders Theater, according to Bonnie J. Becker '95, an Earth Day Committee member who is coordinating the event. National Earth Day is officially on Sunday.

The event is co-sponsored by the Harvard Environmental Action committee, the Environmental Law Society and concerts for the Environment.

The panel will also include John O'Connor, the head of the National Toxics Campaign; Jeffrey Hollander the president of a company selling environmental products; and Winona LaDuke, a Native American activist, said Mike E. Wall '90 of the Environmental Law Society.

Philip Fish, the drummer for the band Fishbone will also be resent at the forum, as will Jonathan Kraft, co-owner of Foxboro Stadium Associates, witch is providing the stadium for Saturday's concert.

The panelists will each relate their own experiences with environmental action and tell students what they can do to help.

Each panelist has a special concern to discuss, Becker said--for Miller, the importance of voter registration, and for Garrett, the Australian Conservation Foundation, of which he is president.

The panelists will take questions from audience members during the second hour of the forum.

Becker said the celebrities will not be performing because they want the event to be purely educational. The celebrities will participate in an Earth Day concert at Foxboro Stadium on Saturday.

Miller's appearance at Harvard is part of his Lost Cities tour. He is trying to combine music with raising student awareness about the environment, according to John D. Walke of the Environmental Law Society.

Other Earth Day festivities are scheduled for 12 noon to 6 p.m. Friday outside Memorial Hall.

Tickets for the forum will be distributed to environmental student groups from other New England university, but 400 free tickets are are being reserved for the Harvard community at the Sanders Theater Box Office, Walke said.