MARINA DEL REY, CA -- Earth Day should be a celebration of industry and technology, not of bugs and dirt, said a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI).
     "It's a myth that the environmentalists are saving the Earth for man -- they actually see us as the enemy of nature," said Andrew Bernstein. "Earth Day should be the occasion for recognizing the Earth as a value -- not in and of itself, but only insofar as it is continually reshaped by man to serve his values. If the environmentalists really wanted to save the Earth for man, they would be staunch champions of industry."
     Bernstein said Earth Day 2000's theme of blaming fossil fuels for allegedly harming the environment spotlights environmentalism's fundamental contempt of industrial society and progress.
     "Fossil fuels are the lifeblood of industrial civilization -- without them there would be no central heating, air conditioning, mass transportation, electricity, refrigeration, and many other life-saving and life-enhancing devices we enjoy today," said Bernstein. "The goal of the environmentalists is to see man shivering in a cave, while the goal of the industrialist is to see man confidently enjoying his life in the comfort and safety of a skyscraper."
     ARI is partnering with the Virginia-based Center for the Moral Defense of Capitalism in a campaign to protest Earth Day as anti-man and to promote the benefits of developing the Earth as good for man's life. This joint effort will culminate with a protest on the Washington, D.C., Mall on Earth Day, Saturday, April 22.
 
Ayn Rand Institute senior writer Andrew Bernstein is available for interviews.
 
 
 
The Ayn Rand Institute, an educational organization established in 1985, seeks to advance novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and its principal tenets: reason, rational egoism and laissez-faire capitalism. For further information, contact ARI Media Relations.  Phone: (949) 222-6550 ext. 213; fax (949) 222-6558; e-mail: interview@aynrand.org or visit ARI's Web site at: http://www.aynrand.org.