If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ve no doubt surmised that when it comes to the environmental movement and their biannual holidays, I fall on the side of cynic. But I digress…
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.
