Ok, so today’s Earth Day, the day where we all celebrate the Earth and champion for its protection. A day where we can sit around and congratulate each other on cleaner rivers and less acid rain. A chance to lament recent failures, and cry concern over the current climate crisis. One day a year that’s completely focused on our own pale blue dot.

Or is it?

Forty years ago, Earth Day was launched by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. His goal was to draw attention to environmental issues. At the time, passion for earth issues was just picking up. Rachel Carson had published her seminal essay, Silent Spring in 1962. The late 60’s brought a number of major oil spills that further catalyzed public opinion on the environment. 1971 marked the year of mercury poisoning in Minimata.

Point is, at the time there was a lot going on to shake public perception. People cared. Awareness mattered.

Here’s my question; Forty year on, do we still need more awareness? Arguably the environmental movement is at its all time peak in popularity. People are more aware of issues of biodiversity and climate change than ever before. When does all this awareness cease to be productive and just become self-congratulatory hype between those who were already in the know?

Moreover, what does Earth Day mean to those outside the minority world? A lot of the clean up in North America has occurred by shipping toxic industry’s offshore. We know about e-waste in Ghana, uranium-tailing ponds in Kyrgyzstan, lead poisoning in the Dominican Republic. The western world continues to call on developing nations to do more to curb CO2 emissions, to clean up toxic industry, yet it’s western owned companies that are often creating the mess to begin with.

There are a lot of people on this Earth. If only a handful are celebrating Earth Day, congratulating their own “awareness,” is it really a day worth celebrating at all? And if our only solution to clean up is to ship industry out of our own backyard and into another, arguably we’re not as aware as we’d like to believe. We are, in fact, just blind.

Here is the video:

Before I begin, note that I am quitting coffee this week…

I hate this video. I find it trite and offensive. To me it epitomizes the very problem with the climate change movement. Emotional music set over do-nothing images designed to induce an emotional reaction to a ridiculous narrative. I mean, come on – Police in full riot gear and baring attack dogs stand menacingly, ready to put down the minions of cute, mostly white, rioters, baring hand panted signs that read “My future is at stake?” It’s one cliche after another, and does nothing but trivialize the real experience of people risking their lives to fight for their freedoms every day.

From the press release:

The video itself was inspired by the student protests in Iran in the summer, said Lorraine Tao, a partner in the film’s production company, Zig. “We were all so moved by the images on YouTube and Twitter… It kind sparked the idea, ‘What if kids actually knew what could happen to them and what would they do?”

I think a quote like that more or less speaks for itself.

The pack approaches

Up close and personal

What are you looking at?

Today friend and fellow photographer Storytella alerted me to the annual naked bike ride making it’s way through my neighbourhood. Biking in the buff, the participants are eco-hippy-chic at it’s finest. Protest or parade? I’m not sure. You decide.