Earthly instincts

Writer Cynthia Walker said she never forgot the reason she took on a difficult project in 1971.

“I wanted to start something that I could pass on to my children and to my grandchildren,” Cynthia Walker said as she looked at a couple dozen copies of the Barnacle, the former newspaper of Orange Coast College.

From 1971 to 1972, Walker was the editor-in-chief of the weekly paper. Each Wednesday, the Barnacle reported on student government and campus life, but on April 21, 1971, she decided to dedicate an entire issue to a new holiday dedicated to celebrating the planet.

“We just felt it was time to do an Earth Day issue before Hallmark got a hold of it,” she said.

Two years earlier, peace activist John McConnell had proposed the holiday as an annual tribute to the Earth and a call to protect the environment. McConnell originally recommended that the United Nations implement the holiday, but in 1970 San Francisco Mayor Joe Alioto helped his city become the first government to officially celebrate Earth Day.

That declaration sent a wave of excitement through the Golden State, prompting progressive communities to prepare to take up the holiday the following year.

Walker and her managing editor, Jerry Latsko, put together a series of pieces dedicated to environmentalism. Her mentor, Los Angeles Times reporter Spencer Crump, pitched in.

At the time, OCC was abuzz after a visit from consumer activist Ralph Nader, Walker said. And environmental groups were beginning to form on campus.

Walker and Latsko tracked down a poem, written by a high school student, called “The Prophecy: The New Genesis,” which predicted that nuclear winter would obliterate life on the planet if people didn’t change their ways.

The pair ran the poem on the front page of the newspaper, along with an article about Earth Day events at the school, including a car-smashing in which participates took whacks at a gas guzzler with a sledge hammer.

“It was a way to shock people into a higher consciousness,” she said.

The paper also commissioned a photo essay about litter in downtown Huntington Beach.

“The idea was to get people to do small things that would lead an individual to a life of equality,” she said.

The Barnacle’s Earth Day issue was a hit, Walker said, and the paper was flooded with dozens of letters questioning the environmental practices of the school and other area businesses.

“This was a chance for a little college community to do a little thing to make a big difference,” she said.

Walker transferred to UCLA and later worked as a freelance writer. She eventually got married and had children.

“I spent a lot of time with my children teaching them the importance of protecting the environment,” she said. “I wanted to give them something they could give to their children.”