The first "Earth Day!" event was almost certainly funded with Soviet money, and it was intended to help disrupt our society. As Communists gradually realized that the U.S. would win the Cold War, more and more such efforts were undertaken to try to slow our progress enough so that Communist societies could continue to compete against us.
Likewise, radical feminism was sponsored by Communists. It has only been in the last decade that we've realized that the Founding Feminists, such as Betty Freidan in particular, were closet Communists. It stands to reason that the feminist "issue" was manufactured for the same reason that the environmental issue was used by the Soviets - to help cause chaos in Democratic, Capitalistic societies so that Communism would have an easier time competing against us.