"May there only be peaceful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life."
Thus said U.N. Secretary General U Thant on February 26, 1971. Having survived almost two generations, if a generation is 20 years, since Gaylord Nelson helped organize that first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, Spaceship Earth continues to hurtle through space, in spite of its offending inhabitants. Being a secular humanist, Earth Day remains the very "holiday" that I truly pay attention to, but since that very first Earth Day in 1970, I have become very troubled. I’m troubled by the fact that we simply can’t get it right; but also troubled by something much more sinister.
Being a junior in High School in 1970, our student body organized a number of events for that very first of Earth Days. Attending a suburban school outside of Minneapolis, our student president proclaimed that all bus riders should boycott the yellow bus, and walk. So, on April 22, 1970, a beautiful Spring morning in Minnesota, I walked 3 miles to school. Really not much of a sacrifice given the overall loathsome condition of our environment, not to mention the ongoing war in Viet Nam, but it wasn’t meaningless either. It bred awareness, and demonstrated to our young minds that activism in the face of injustice was possible. I attribute this single event to planting the seed of consciousness into my dull, inactive brain. We learned about over population, and why we need a sustainable environment. And we also used the event to protest the U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.
Let’s fast forward 39 years and examine the path well traveled. Clean and Green sells, but also demands that the forces of capitalist production mend their ways; in other words, clean and green demands reform, and reform demands people before profit. Green washing by corporate interests is the clearest example of using the spirit of Earth Day to sell products in a deceptive manner. Most people want to make sound consumer choices concerning environmental impact, but most available information about products come from corporate interests themselves. The latest rash of auto ads claiming how green their product is, in spite of the damning impact they have on our environment, is a clear example. Here in South East Michigan, home of the American Auto industry, as well as a metro area of 5 million people, there is no mass transit. The lack of alternatives to private autos mean greater concentrations of smog, choked freeways, raging tempers in traffic jams and many violent deaths as these damn things crash into each other. Not to mention we are simply running out of fuel to operate these personal beasts. But ads showing personal freedom on wide open highways still flash across our TV screens.
I’m not just concerned about false marketing by the corporate sector to take advantage of consumers; corporate encroachment into our civil government is far more sinister. But should I be surprised? After all, as the good Dr. Marx once noted, government is the executive committee of the ruling class. How about the "Clear Skies Act", which essentially gutted the Clean Air Act? This gem allows 58 more tons of mercury to be pumped into our environment through 2012, and 163 more tons through 2020, above already existing levels. The public would have revolted if this legislation would have been called by its proper name, perhaps the "Polluted Skies Act", or the "Mercury Is Good For You Act"; but with slick advertising, it was called “Clear Skies.” We can’t forget the "Healthy Forests Restoration Act", which was nicknamed the "No Tree Left Behind Act" by environmental groups. This piece of corporate work was nothing but a sell out to logging interests looking for huge profits by clear cutting public forests in the name of “cleaning” the forest floor as fire hazards.
So what’s to come this year for Earth Day 39, and on into the 40th anniversary next year? Frankly, I’m not certain. In spite of the wonderful work of many millions worldwide, over population, environmental degradation, and wars over ever dwindling resources continue to plague human kind. Without an uprising from people in all walks of life, regardless of economic status, our sick planet will continue to spin out of control, even as it hurtles through space seemingly in control by the laws of physics. As long as corporate interests are allowed to profit, regardless of degradation to human health or the environment, our condition will continue to decline. It is simply not acceptable to wait until our condition is so out of control that our collective backs are pressed against the wall, any more than a cancer patient would sit absentmindedly as the deadly disease slowly consumes her body. To do nothing is death; to do too little will prolong the predictable. We understand what will happen to us should be fail to act. For myself, I want to return to the excitement we felt on that first Earth day 39 years ago. We believed the future held promise, and we had our collective marching orders to correct the planets problems; but for the most part, we failed. If you are young, and still reading, please pick up the exuberance I hold for this day of collective action. I know where I went wrong, but that’s a whole story in itself, and not worth writing about here. Our fragile planet will not last another generation of selfish consumerism.
Friday evening: Before posting this to Znet, several high school juniors from the local school knocked on our door collecting returnable cans to raise money for Earth Week! I couldn’t, nor would I, make such a story up. Will these young folks offer success where my generation failed?
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