With the 39th Earth Day just around the corner, there’s a little tongue-in-cheek backlash about its recurrent hype going on. But while "Screw Earth Day" is somewhat of an eco-prank by the folks at the on-line green magazine, Grist, there is also a serious message:
"Too many people tokenize Earth Day, using it as an excuse to hug a tree one day and ram it with their SUV the next," said Chip Giller, founder and CEO of Grist. "We say, screw that. One day is for amateurs. We can do better."
According to Grist, a lasting impact for the planet is less about what a person does (or doesn’t do) once a year on April 22 and more about what they do every single day.
The Screw Earth Day! campaign [begun a couple of weeks ago] coincides with the start of a year-long 10th Anniversary celebration for Grist and the launch of its new website at grist.org. |
At Grist, Dave Roberts writes:
Why does Grist hate Earth Day, you may be wondering? Are you guys jealous or something?
No ... yes ... not really ... then again, sorta. You see, every year as the calendar approaches April 22, the Grist staff gets cranky.
"Here it comes," we say to ourselves, "the day we’re supposed to do something GREEN and appreciate all the attention that this made-up holiday brings to Grist and every other environmental organization and cause under the sun."
And then there’s all those people who get to take credit for being green for one day and we’re all supposed to be happy about it. ...
Screw Earth Day was born from mixed emotions about a day that we purists think doesn’t do enough to get the message across about what individuals can and should be doing to protect the environment. While even the most jaded Grist staffer gets a little excited on Earth Day, as lots and lots of people gather together in communities around the world to do something good for our dearly loved Mother Nature, in the back of our heads we’re thinking, "It’s not about a single day, dude, it’s about living green every day." |
The problem, as Roberts says in another post, is:
Green is all the hype everywhere. So you might think that the public would be engaged in this push.
But polls find public interest as low as ever, and opinion about climate and energy policy is as inchoate and incoherent as ever. There are no rallies. There are no emails and letters and phone calls streaming into Congressional offices. There is no real social movement behind energy/climate action. There’s nothing to push a recalcitrant member of Congress in the right direction. |
There’s a short critique over at Treehugger, to wit:
... you don't engage the public or influence politicians by crapping all over Earth Day and not using the opportunity to deliver the message yet again, and try to pick up a few more converts to help start a real social movement behind energy/climate action.
Right now we have to send a loud message to those recalcitrant members of congress, as Margaret Thatcher said: This is no time to get wobbly. It is also no time to be telling people to Screw Earth Day. It IS time to push this button, and every other one we can get to, as hard as we can. . |
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The rescue begins below and continues in the jump. Inclusion of a particular diary in the rescue package does not necessarily indicate agreement with it. Provoking discussion is the intent.
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The Anomaly asked Is Noise Pollution Overheating our Senses?: "During the Obama’s news conference in Trinidad, I couldn’t help but be offended by the blaring background noise contaminating his eloquent responses. ...The current epidemic known as Homeland Security has turned our local police, fire, and medical personnel into a 3-ring circus of honking horns, wild patterns of screeching sirens, and never-ending flashing lights. The pollution to the senses is suffocating. We badly need the restoration of noise and light abatement programs."
Shocked. Volt won't save GM opined ctexrep: "The Volt was designed and will be marketed to change this perception - and yes, GM will lose money on each unit sold - similar to Toyota losing money on its Prius. As economies of scale grow, manufacturing becomes more efficient and hopefully, there will be a time when they make money on the Volt. Toyota, if sales continue to grow, should start making a profit on the Prius this year, however, considering the state of the auto industry, it may not happen. Toyota is in much better financial shape than GM and can afford to take a loss on the sale of the Prius - GM does not have that luxuary - they can't afford the loss, yet they can't afford to not introduce the Volt."
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The Overnight News Digest is posted and includes the story, South Korea lights the way on carbon emissions with its £23bn green deal
Daveparts took another angle in Another Earth Day: "The naysayers, the twenty percenters as I call them, publish their letters to the editor about environmental alarmists, and news anchors scoff when it snows during a global warming rally. These twenty percenters believe anything they are told by pundits; pulpit or politico and the media parrots the company line. Again the thread that runs through it all is greed. The illusion of a free press when in fact the press is quite expensive and is controlled by the same people who move your job, pollute your waters and blacken your skies."
Contributing Editor Jed Lewison doesn’t let us know about another kind of hot air in Boehner: Cow farts demonstrate CO2 is safe.
Clean Coal breakthrough could save our economy!, according to BlueStateLiberal: "Global warming is a problem , but so is our large deficit and huge national debt worth $12 trillion and the only energy that could effectively kill 2 birds is CLEAN COAL. I'm all for wind/solar power , but unlike many of my fellow liberals ,i truly do not believe those 2 renewable energy can ever make up a significant percentage of our energy consumption because of many problem."
Synoia argued that Carbon Sequestration is Totally Nonsense, using math to explain why this won’t work.
davidwalters talked about China’s energy focus in Chinese Wind Resources Zoom Ahead of Nuclear? No, but it sure reads like that...: "From nuclear, to wind, to hydro, to solar to even human-powered-peddle-power, no one can shine a light near the Chinese. Of course the big 500GW gorilla in the room is coal which is 80% of all their generation (that they know of, it might even be more). Coal is also used to heat homes, cook food, provide district heat, and a host of other unregulated, un-audited uses. They even have power plants there built ‘illegally’ and ‘off the grid.’ Not a good or pleasant picture. But I digress... The Chinese goal of 40 GWs of new nucelar energy (about 30 plants) by 2020 (11 years away) was boosted recently to 70 GWs of new nuclear. Interestingly this has raised concern expressed by another reuters dispatched article here. 10 years after that they expect to be up to at least 160 GWs and maybe more."
"A technology with the potential to change our civilization" was vets74 focus in his Diary, When A Fusion is a Fusion is not Thermonuclear Fusion: "‘Cold fusion’ got to be an international joke -- cited as fake science. Last month, though, we got low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) covered by American Chemical Society. Articles show both evidence for the underlying nuclear process and descriptions of a number of successful demonstrations."
converger wrote about Carbon offsets, forests, and runaway climate: "So, the planet is warming up, fast. But no worries, right? Even the climate-change deniers and the carbon-spewing corporations who love them are on board now with the idea that we have to do something, right? Except, well, they would rather that fixing the problem didn't cost anything. Better yet, they'd like a carbon cap-and-trade system that makes carbon emission credits really valuable, except that they get theirs for free, and other people give them money. Yeah. They'd be OK with that. Incredible as it seems, this is actually the current level of the discussion about how we fix climate change in the United States at the moment. We appear to be in the delusional phase of dealing with the problem."
beach babe in fl had a suggestion for Earth Day in Macca's Meatless Monday...No Brave Face on my plate: "In this weekly series we have been discussing the many advantages of a vegetarian diet including; health, animal rights, food crisis, frugal living and today with Earth Day approaching on Wednesday we will celebrate by taking raatz comments from last week and go vegan for one day.
Auntie Neo Kawn took out some "civilians" in her war on ratterror, as she explained in Kossacks, I really need some advice from you: "Because the birds are slobs who spill food all over the ground, at least three rats have taken up residence under our deck. Yesterday I insisted we get rid of them, even though I knew that whatever we did would put my beloved squirrels at risk."