Some of the audience members were already making headway in the environmental movement, like Barry Commoner, Ralph Nader, and Gaylord Nelson. But, the quirky theatrical production perhaps helped shape the lives of other people in the audience to become more involved in the environmental movement. A young Doug Scott would eventually lobby Congress for the Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club, leading to the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980, as Smithsonian Magazine points out.
This demonstrative display of a burgeoning anti-gas guzzling sentiment seemed to help the environmental movement gain traction. Within a year, the country would celebrate its first Earth Day and establish the Environmental Protection Agency, according to TIME.
However, some of the attendees recognize the inherently wasteful nature of the performance itself. Much like buying a brand new car to bury it and make a point, destroying a car was a bit childish and “quite elitist,” George Coling, a graduate student at Michigan’s School of Public Health at the time told Smithsonian Magazine. Coling, who became an activist focused on highway development, said the demonstration failed to take into account “the very real need that people have for transportation.” Apparently, the student who donated the car to the production had just bought a new car himself, proving Dr. Sigmund Ford’s dependence point.
