The “Eco-Phony” World’s Fair

Expo ’74 and the Bind of Being Friends of the Earth

Bibliographic Data

ID7201759
AuthorsMegan Ann Black (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume31
Issue1
Pages93-120
Publication date2025-12-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironmental History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1084-5453 • E-ISSN: 1930-8892
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/738731
OpenAlexW7115167293
LanguageEN
References cited25

By the summer of 1974, David Brower had turned his environmental organization Friends of the Earth into a leading proponent of global environmentalism. However, after returning from the second United Nations Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya, Brower found himself protested by many rank-and-file members of his own organization for a different international event that he was meant to headline: the first world’s fair for the environment, Expo ’74, in Spokane, Washington. The local membership claimed Expo ’74 was becoming an “eco-phony” fair, and they had a point. Although it departed from previous world expositions by centering on environmental problems created by industry, Expo ’74 nevertheless advanced a decidedly proindustry agenda. The overlooked history of Expo ’74 thus represents a fascinating convergence of the histories of world exhibitions, the corporate capture of environmental messaging, and global environmentalism. By using Brower and Friends of the Earth as a lens into the event, this article highlights the ways in which environmentalists like Brower contributed to the corporate capture of environmental messaging and reveals some pitfalls in the strategy to defend the earth on a planetary scale.

Atmosphere (unit) · Convergence (economics) · Earth (classical element · Earth history · Earth observation · Earth system science · Environmental history · Global environmental analysis · World history · Conferences and Exhibitions Management · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics

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