Earth Day Proclamation

A cornerstone in John McConnell's outspoken drive for peace is his Earth Day Proclamation, which he wrote in June 1970. Penned in beautiful calligraphy, John espoused that each signer of the Proclamation:

• Peacefully end the scourge of war
• Provide an opportunity for children of the disinherited poor to obtain their rightful inheritance in the Earth
• Redirect the energies of industry and society from progress through products to progress through harmony with Earth's natural systems for improving the quality of life

Then, in the early 1970s and again in the 1990s, he obtained signatures from thirty-six of the highest, most renowned personages of the globe, including Arvid M. Pardo, Margaret Mead, Eugene McCarthy, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, U Thant, Mark Hatfield, Lubos Kohoutek, Buckminster Fuller, John Denver, Isaac Asimov, Anatoly Berezovoi, Oscar Arias, Carlos Salinas, Yassir Arafat, Yehudi Menuhin, and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Earth Trustees

In 1971, while sitting in a Texas restaurant, John McConnell conceived the Earth Trustee concept. Writing on his placemat, he identified ways in which individuals, cities, colleges, universities and other entities would determine the best manner to better preserve Earth.

Let each person choose to be a Trustee of Planet Earth, each in their own way, seeking to think, choose and act in ways that will protect, preserve and increase Earth's natural bounty, ever seeking fair benefits for all Earth's people and for its creatures great and small.- John McConnell, Earth Trustee Challenge, early 1970s

Earth Society Foundation

In 1973, John McConnell founded the Earth Society to help promote the Earth Flag, Earth Day and the Earth Trustee Agenda, especially at the United Nations. This organization grew out of an informal meeting between John and other interested parties at a UN Conference of the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden, in June 1972. With the help of John's good friend, anthropologist Margaret Mead, this entity evolved into a UN non-governmental organization, the Earth Society Foundation, in 1976. Starting in 1990, the Earth Society Foundation began to grant Earth Trustee Environmental Awards. U.S. Vice President Al Gore was among the first recipients for his book, Earth in the Balance. Other recipients ranged from Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala to human rights activist Bianca Jagger, from Greenpeace International to the American Chestnut Foundation and the Robin Hood Oak Society, from peace and nuclear disarmament activists to explorers, journalists, marine geologists, economists and politicians. Later awards went to the Nobel Committee and Nobel Foundation, Nobel Peace Laureates Jose Ramos Horta of East Timor and Wangari Maathai of Kenya, and UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold.

Comet Kohoutek

Ever seeking publicity and audiences for his vision of Earth appreciation, John McConnell seized such an opportunity in the winter of 1973 and 1974. Working in conjunction with New York's South Street Seaport Museum, John booked group passage for himself, Anna, and many others on the luxury passenger liner, Queen Elizabeth 2. The purpose was to view the passing of Comet Kohoutek in the Atlantic Ocean. The first cruise was for three days and went a few hundred miles east of New York's bright city lights. The second cruise lasted two weeks and went to Venezuela, the Caribbean, the Bahamas and Florida. John arranged for docents, presenters and entertainers, including Dr. Lubos Kohoutek, the astronomer who discovered the comet; numerous other scientists, professors and astronomers from NASA as well as planetariums and observatories; astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin; astrophysicist and astronomer Dr. Carl Sagan; singer Burl Ives; pianist Deirdre O'Donahue; and Robert Mason, inventor of the Moog synthesizer.

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