Forget Earth Day!
Earth Day should be turned inside out. Instead of “celebrating” environmentalism one day each year, we should set aside April 22 for expressions of greed, consumerism, crapulence. The other 364 days can be spent thinking about the wondrous species we share this planet with.
As it stands now, Earth Day is a day when all manner of corporate polluters and their political enablers crawl out from under large rocks to performatively greenwash their brands. Consider the US Army’s Earth Day statement: “Army land, air and water resources are vital to both present and future missions and we must nurture the environment with an eye towards modernization and conservation.” Are they asking us to protect the Army’s natural resources so that the Army can do more missions?
We’re not alone in our disdain. A New Republic commentary this week titled “Bring Back the Real Earth Day” found three columns in other publications with variations on the same theme: “I Am An Environmentalist/Scientist/Journalist And I Hate Earth Day,” seen in the Daily Beast, Mother Jones, and the Detroit Free Press. A typical sentiment: “I am furious that, every year, April 22 comes and goes while we continue to dig ourselves deeper towards climate and ecological debt and disaster.”
The scientist-contributor pointed out that, since the first Earth Day in 1970, “humans have used up almost 70 percent of the carbon budget available for all of time, for all of humanity” and that populations of vertebrates in the wild have declined by 68 percent.
If you are 37 years old or younger, every year of your life has been warmer than the 20th century average. Non-human species are going extinct 1000 times faster than they would if humans weren’t here destroying habitats.
Instead of the annual hypocrisy-fest, Earth Day should be a day for consumers to choose plastic if they want it. Eat meat. Take an aimless drive in the car. One day of feeling dominion over nature before returning to a more natural state, as it were, of perennial ecological living.
The point is, we shouldn’t have to think about conserving energy, reducing waste, or what it means to be “environmentally conscious” once a year. We should really be (sub)consciously environmental every day, living each one as if the planet depended on our tender care – because it does.
Photo credit: The Motley Fool
