Denis Hayes, Earth Day Network

Denis Hayes is chair of Earth Day Network. He was the national coordinator for the first Earth Day in 1970 and now earns his keep as president of the Bullitt Foundation in Seattle, Wash. He is also author of the new book The Official Earth Day Guide to Planet Repair.

The day starts with an ice-cold shower. Not by choice. But it certainly gets the sleep out of my eyes.

My email has an international update. Some sexy items include:

• An anticipated 1 million people at the Clean Air Rally in Mexico City.
  
  
• One million Indonesian automobile owners turning off their cars for the day.
  
  
• Dozens of Italian cities banning cars from their central business districts.
  
  
• A series of environmental justice rallies in South Africa against the toxic emissions of oil refineries. (Environmental justice, with a special focus on energy, is also the dominant theme of the huge rally planned for Los Angeles.)
  
  
• The launch of the first national environmental campaign in the history of China.
  
  
• An Eco-festival in the Millennium Dome in London.
  
  
• Colorful parachutes streaming toward the earth in Croatia (as a metaphor for solar energy).

This international dimension will be completely ignored by virtually all of the American media. But reality is not determined by American newspapers. I'm allowing myself to start feeling really good about this campaign.

I do a quick call-in interview with KINK radio in Portland, Ore., where I worked as a student intern in the summer of 1969 -- just before the first Earth Day. Then a bunch of legal and organizational phone calls.

We head over for a rally at Georgia State. Great bunch of kids. They have bought a dogwood tree in my name, and they plan to plant it on their concrete-dominated campus with a plaque. It's really touching.

Head to the CNN Center to help present an award to Ted Turner. Ted and I go frolicking in a mountain of recycled videotape for the photographers, and then head across the street to the Chamber of Commerce where I deliver a candid assessment of the perils of the sprawl that has come to define Atlanta in the public mind. Then a quick race back to my hotel room for a session with populist radio host Jim Hightower.

From the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce to Jim Hightower. I have spanned pretty much the responsible limits of American democracy in the space of one hour.

I head to CNN to record some "substance" stuff for them to have in the can for Earth Day. Peter Dykstra, CNN's science editor, is one of the smartest, nicest people in journalism.

Take MARTA to a wonderful session with our key Georgia organizers. Learn that the Southface Institute, which I've admired since I first learned of it, is actually the renamed organization that sponsored "Sun Day" in Atlanta back in 1978. I chaired Sun Day, and am delighted to find this vibrant, healthy descendant of that campaign, still headed by Dennis Creech.

Meg scoops me up and we take MARTA again to the airport, arriving at the gate with almost 10 minutes to spare. I squeeze in a three-minute actuality by cell phone with a D.C. radio station to use during drive time tomorrow.

Speaking of "drive time," public transportation has really worked for this trip. I could never have negotiated Atlanta's congested freeways fast enough to catch my plane.

Back in Washington, D.C., I tour the stage on the Mall, handle some signage problems (I actually get to say "yes" to someone), meet with a delegation visiting from Japan just for Earth Day, go over the Saturday Mall program with Kelly, download my schedule for tomorrow (it starts at 5:30), and hit the sack about 1:15.