by: Michael Zabrodsky

Jamestown's 10,000 Maniacs were scheduled to play in a big Earth Day concert today to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the official awakening of the nation's environmental consciousness.

And environmental consciousness is a topic that is always on the mind of Steve Gustafson, the Maniacs bassist.

The Maniacs were scheduled to play in Washington today in an attempt to help increase public awareness of unwanted waste in the environment. Ziggy Marley was to headline the concert. Other bands on the program include Bruce Hornsby and the Range, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Billy Bragg and the Indigo Girls. The Maniacs were to have played at the 9:30 Club Friday as a warm-up.

On Sunday a big rally is scheduled on the Mall in front of the Washington Monument. "As most people know the first Earth Day was 20 years ago," Gustafson said. "It was basically an effort to raise people's awareness of their planet their environment, their surroundings and discuss different ways to take care of them.

"Since then it seems that things haven't got better at all. They have got considerably worse," Gustafson said. "There is more and more waste every year, far too much pollution, and just a lot of general nasty things going on that should be changed or altered somewhat."

As for the future, Gustafson said he would like to think humanity is not too late and still has time to change the course it has decided to take.

"It scares me sometimes. If you don't start now it could be certain death," he said. "People could die from pollution."

Gustafson made a point of how manufacturers package their products. "Boxes of cereal are an example," he said. "You may have a couple ounces of cereal, but the box weighs more than that. That's not necessarily the consumer's fault. The manufacturers like things too big and bright. They use excess too much."

Gustafson said we live in an age of disposable materials such - as diapers, lighters and plastic bags. Referring to today's concert he said it makes him think more about recycling. "Instead of storing sandwiches in your refrigerator in plastic sandwich bags get a reusable container. I even wash out plastic garbage bags and reuse them," he said. "A lot of that stuff takes a long time to decompose."

Gustafson says recycling is important. Since he has bought a house he a he has cut his waste flow in half.