Fuck Earth Day

[WilliamPitt]

Over 20,000 people attended the first Earth Day observance in Philadelphia, April, 1970.
(AP Photo/Bill Ingraham)

Let This Earth Day Be The Last
By Wen Stephenson
The Nation

April 22, 2014

Fuck Earth Day.

No, really. Fuck Earth Day. Not the first one, forty-four years ago, the one of sepia-hued nostalgia, but everything the day has since come to be: the darkest, cruelest, most brutally self-satirizing spectacle of the year.

Fuck it. Let it end here.

End the dishonesty, the deception. Stop lying to yourselves, and to your children. Stop pretending that the crisis can be “solved,” that the planet can be “saved,” that business more-or-less as usual—what progressives and environmentalists have been doing for forty-odd years and more—is morally or intellectually tenable. Let go of the pretense that “environmentalism” as we know it—virtuous green consumerism, affluent low-carbon localism, head-in-the-sand conservationism, feel-good greenwashed capitalism—comes anywhere near the radical response our situation requires.

So, yeah, I've had it with Earth Day—and the culture of progressive green denial it represents.

(snip)

Because our global crisis—not merely environmental but moral and spiritual—is fundamental: it strikes to the root of who we are. It’s a radical situation, requiring a radical response. Not merely radical in the sense of ideology, but a kind of radical necessity. It requires us to find out who we really are—and, nonviolently, in the steps of Gandhi and King and many others, to act. In some cases, to lay everything—everything—on the line.

And it requires us to be honest, with each other and with ourselves, about the situation we face. We’ll never have a movement radical enough, or humane enough, until we are.

That is, until Earth Day is buried—and a day of reckoning begins.

The rest: http://www.thenation.com/blog/179375/let-earth-day-be-last

Take the ride and read it. It's more than worth it.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. He's right. And what a sad commentary is that. n/t

[2naSalit]

4. yet another truth

that is so easily equivocated and denied.

I am no longer sad for our species, but for all the other species we will surely take down as we go kicking and screaming that it was someone else's fault.

[RandoLoodie]

2. Just celebrate Fuck Day

and get yer freak on.

"Burn, baby, burn, disco inferno!"

[NightWatcher]

3. Let's change it to Edward Abbey Day

Go out and DO something that would make Ed proud.

[2naSalit]

5. +1...!!!!!

[Warpy]

32. Ah, the antidote for Paul

who said faith was the only road to salvation and thereby enabled every monster since then to claim god was on his side.

[RobertEarl]

6. Everyday should be earth day

Once a year we have xmas and that's the one day we all say, everyone should be nice. The rest of the year is like hey, gimme that.

It is irrational to set aside just one day for doing the right thing, but that is how our society is set up.

Luckily for homo-sapiens we can adapt to most of the injuries we have inflicted on our earth. The rest of life here is screwed. The end of nature draws near. The earth will no longer be natural.

[jmondine]

17. Every day IS Earth Day

And every day has been so, for everyone except astronauts.

Oh, and if you're not an environmentalist, then stop breathing the environment's air and consuming its food and water.

[Louisiana1976]

28. +1!

[theboss]

7. The real question is: How do you tell India and China to reverse their economic growth?

China produces something like 40 percent more CO2 than the US, and the US levels are actually declining. (US levels per capita are still off the charts of course).

The true problem with environmentalism has always been that you have to reach a certain level of affluence before you can restore the environment, but that you have to destroy the environment to reach that level of affluence.

China does seem to recognize that the country is quickly becoming a toxic waste dump and is taking some steps, but - at the end of the day - it's not going to be able to make major reductions while still growing economically. And if it did, India or Africa or somewhere else may be the next country to need dozens of new coal power plants.

[RobertEarl]

11. Be an example?

The pollution we created in the US is the biggest problem. We have dead sea shores, acidic mountain tops, still dump coal waste, and pump tons of co2 into the air out our tailpipes. We are living in a trash heap. And here you are pointing over there and claiming they are the threat.

We have met the enemy and it is us.

Are you ready to set an example for India? Or just blowing smoke?

[theboss]

12. US emissions have decreased over the past three years

And how is US pollution a bigger problem than China's when China produces something like 40 percent more pollution?

Do you think China would follow the US's example?

[RobertEarl]

14. They are following the US example

How to make a fast buck. China is even better at it.

So here we sit in a trash heap, the environment is worse and not going to get better.

Telling everyone else to clean up their act?; Hypocrisy or just plain irrational?

[theboss]

34. So what do we do?

Eliminate all emissions in the US, live in caves and still die because Asia is toxic?

[RobertEarl]

35. Solar power, maybe?

Strict conservation. Smokestack emissions cleaned up. Live in smaller houses. Drive less. End most airplane flights.

How's that for you? It's what real environmentally minded people have been saying for, oh, 50 years.

Then, on earth days, we get thanked. The other 364, we get ignored.

The US has been, and still is, the most per capita polluters the earth has ever seen.

[Separation]

8. :(

I always enjoyed Earth Day because its my birthday. My parents always had us out collecting trash from beaches, roadways and parks etc, for a week and then on the 22nd she told me everyone was celebrating my birthday.

I have told my kids the same thing. My daughter who will be 18 in 3 months just rolls her eyes at me when I say that, but my son still gets a kick. And every year we go out and do the same thing my parents did with me, Im now doing with my kids.

I wouldn't say Fuck Earth day, and not just because everyone is celebrating my birthday.

Look at Woodstock, Burning Man, and other things born naturally and then taken over by the corporations. Does that mean we should stop doing what we did before it became profitable?

Take your kids out and explain to the kids what it means to you, and why its important. 2-3 generations are basically a write off. If it there is going to be change it is going to be through our kids.

[Mnemosyne]

15. Happy Birthday, Separation!

[Jgarrick]

9. April 22 is also National Jellybean Day (no, reallly), which has almost as much cultural impact.

...at least for myself and my friends and family. I can't recall ever knowing a single person even to mention Earth Day, let alone observe it.

[MohRokTah]

10. Every day is Earth Day. eom

[JaneyVee]

13. Hilarious how they shut the lights for 1 hour.

Why even bother.

[n2doc]

16. K and Fuckin' R!

This passage rings true:

As I’ve said elsewhere, let’s be clear about what this means: at this late date, given what we know and have known for decades, to willfully obstruct any serious response to global warming is to knowingly allow entire countries and cultures to disappear. It is to rob the poorest and most vulnerable people on the planet of their land, their homes, their livelihoods, even their lives and their children’s lives—and their children’s children’s lives. For money. For political power.

These are crimes. They are crimes against the Earth, and they are crimes against humanity.

[lame54]

18. Sounds like you are blaming the day itself...

as if it didn't exist all are problems would be solved

What a strange rant

[WilliamPitt]

20. RIF

I didn't write it.

[lame54]

21. Sorry, Should have looked closer...

still makes little sense to me

[WilliamPitt]

22. Well...

...if you're moving so fast that you missed the author and the link provided, maybe you missed a few other things along the way.

Just sayin'.

[lame54]

25. Went back and read every word...

turns out to be very relevant - about what really needs to be done - But i still don't think Earth Day is standing in the way

If he didn't start out with that strange rant - the portion that you chose to include in your OP - i may not have been turned off and read the whole article the first time

Just sayin'

[WilliamPitt]

26. Your short attention span

is not my fault. That's how the article started. It is what it is.

Glad you read the whole thing.

[lame54]

27. It is...

Thanks for the beer

[seveneyes]

19. "In some cases, to lay everything—everything—on the line"

That's somewhat vague. Anyone know what such an act would entail?

[piratefish08]

23. shit. he's right.

[joshcryer]

24. They should rename it "Earth Strong."

Then we can pretend it's meaningful about our planetary community.

[Democracyinkind]

29. Let's keep it so we can teach our kids what trees were all about and shit like that.

That was a very well written and pertinent article. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[Warpy]

30. That's how I've felt about the whole thing since 1970

when I was taking the trash out once a month because I bought everything in bulk and reused the bags for all sorts of things. My veggies were nude on the ride home from the veggie stand and went into heavily reused plastic bags at home. Most of my trash was junk mail and I have no idea what to do about that. At least here in NM, you can now recycle the glossy catalogs as well as stuff on newsprint and computer paper.

I converted to CFL bulbs because I hate getting up on a rickety ladder to change the incandescents every few months. Now I'm starting to convert some fixtures to LEDs. I'll keep the last box of incandescent bulbs around as museum pieces, maybe the next person who lives in this house can get rich quick on Antiques Roadshow.

I've done all the energy miser stuff ahead of the curve and my own carbon footprint is laughably low.

And I've done exactly none of it because of Earth Day or any other gimmick.

[Corruption Inc]

31. But if we don't let all the criminal polluters polute, the economy will collapse!

So what if criminals are destroying the planet, just "look forward" and it all magically goes away. Let war criminals go for irradiating entire countries with depleted uranium, creating torture camps and civil wars and looting entire cultures, who cares!!!

Let's look at kitty cat pictures!

[agbdf]

33. Really?

A radical solution? Please, tell us what your "radical" alternative is? Oh, does your radical plan apply to China, India and the rest of the other nations in various stages of emerging development?

I happen to celebrate Earth Day and was fortunate enough to have participated in the first one back in 1970. If you're going to trash a day that serves as an important day of learning to millions of school children and generates enormous media coverage shouldn't you at least tell us what your radical, special, top secret plan is to replace Earth Day with - after you Bury it of course.

Please, I can't wait to hear what it is.

[KoKo]

36. It's a depressing post. I would have wanted to see Many Here posting about "Earth Day"

But, I noticed a lack of posts leading up to and today, here.

It's easy to bog down in cynicism...Or...rather...its "practical" given what's going on to bog down into cynicism.

But...while this post reflects what we see... What IF we did better? WHY did WE Allow "Earth Day" to become a "footnote" out here on the Blogosphere.

There's much going on out there but if one posts about it ....no one here cares. It's not Dead unless people forget...and people have not forgotten...except on the sites that used to triumph "Earth Day" who are now in their declining days...if we don't stand up and re-invigorate all of it ...instead of getting bogged down in the Political Wars.

Anyway...

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/

https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=12538