Earth Day began last night as students packed Sanders Theatre to hear seven panelists, including Sen. Edmund Muskie (D-Maine) and George Wald, Higgins Professor of Biology, discuss the environmental crisis. The discussion, sponsored by the Harvard Ecology Coalition, was broadcast live outside of Boston over National Educational Television.

"Those who believe the environmental crisis relates to trees and not to people are wrong," Muskie said. Referring to the high standard of living, he said, "there's still an unwillingness to cut back on selfish exploitation for selfless conservation."

"We of our generation, as we look arcund us, obviously haven't assembled the wisdom necessary to do what must be done," Muskie said. "But we will try to write tougher laws. That is our intent. We will try to take advantage of public opinion," he added.

Wald blasted the automobile as "the biggest polluter in the country."

"The Harvard Corporation is taking an awfully long time to make up its mind how to vote its 280000 shares in the public interest." he added.

Wald cautioned that "We mustn't let the environment and concern with pollution become a distraction from other issues" such as Vietnam, the draft, and "the militarization of our country."

Panelist Barry Commoner, professor of plant physiology at Washington University and chairman of the Committee on Alteration of the Environment, said, "You're the first generation in the history of man to carry DDT in your fat and Strontium 90 in your bones."

For President Nixon to become the first Eco-President, Commoner suggested that Nixon:

stop cutting off funds for environmental research;

stop development of the SST;

halt the exploitation of the oil deposits in Alaska until the oil pipeline technology is improved to deal with permanent frost;

stop the war in Vietnam.

Other panclists were Theodore Levitt, professor of Business Administration, State Sen. John Moakley (D-South Boston), Malcolm Rivkin '58, regional planner with Rivkin and Carson of Washington, D. C., and George Wiley, Executive Director of the National Welfare Rights Organization. The Ecology Coalition keynote speaker was Scott Lang, a second-year Law School student.