Some people on the sidelines may wonder, is Earth Day still necessary? Sometimes I have mixed emotions about a day that purists think doesn’t do enough to get the message across about what individuals can and should be doing to conserve resources. Perhaps what founder Gaylord Nelson started as a groundswell of sit ins, be ins, and do ins in 1970 has devolved into a phony Hallmark holiday; a victim of its own success, co-opted by style over substance marketing, greenwashing, and feel good gestures that don’t create any meaningful change.
There’s an essay that covers similar terrain by Alex Steffen and Sarah Rich from Worldchange. Way back in 2007, when polls showed that most Americans believe climate change is real, they argued the Earth Day celebration should have been the last. The timing was right, they said, and concluded, what we need is a dramatic break with the past.
Earth Day accomplished its mission; the environment is now near the top of the global agenda. By making this Earth Day our last, we can signal that the time for mere awareness is over, and the time for real transformation has arrived.
But don’t say that to the Lilac City! For the 40th Earth Day, local organizers seem equally as informed by P.T. Barnum as they were by Bill McKibben in putting together the most audacious Earth Day Spokane has ever seen. The event runs from 11am to midnight on Maine Avenue between Division and Browne Street (with echoes of the Sustainable Uprising event last September.) There are funky children’s activities like sidewalk chalk art to raise awareness on stormwater runoff and the WSU Raptor Club displaying rescued live birds. Films at the Magic Lantern like The Story Of Stuff and Vanishing of the Bees, the latter has never been screened in the United States.
Performances by such disparate acts the Lilac City Roller Girls and Jupiter Effect. Speeches by Mayor Mary Verner, City Councilman Jon Snyder, and Commissioner Bonnie Mager. Since we’re starting early, footage of the event will appear on a jumbotron at the national mall in Washington, D.C. One hundred organizations total are participating, representing that environmental change begins with personal responsibility, leading by example, and becoming involved in the decision making process for regulatory policies like transportation and land use.
In a sense, yes, everyday should be Earth Day but throughout transitional American towns like Spokane, a celebration is absolutely critical, a time for connectivity amongst a variety of community organizations; a time to educate. You can’t undermine the importance of awareness, no matter how incremental.
- RSVP for the Earth Day Tree Planting and Prep Party when four new trees will be planted on Main Avenue.
- RSVP for Earth Day on Facebook.
- Sign a national petition that will be presented on April 25th at the National Mall to push for climate legislation.
Tags: Community · Non-Profits · Sustainable Development · Videos15 Comments
15 responses so far ↓
This is a great reflection as well. I like it when bloggers get personal about their own organizing work:
http://www.downtoearthnw.com/blogs/down-earth/2010/apr/15/earth-day-spokane-dte-gets-personal-barts-story/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook
Thanks Spovangelist!
And great post Pope!
Earth Day has suffered the fate of all cult holidays — it has become excuse to party and an opportunity to sell T-shirts, bongs, overpriced produce, and hemp skirts. Your lament, “Sometimes I have mixed emotions about a day that purists think doesn’t do enough to get the message across about what individuals can and should be doing to conserve resources,” paraphrases the ritual complaint about Christmas: “it’s true meaning has been forgotten, and replaced by crass commercialism”.
The Gaia worshippers’ prophecies of Armageddon are being taken about as seriously as those of the Yahweh worshippers’: “Earth Day/Xmas Party Saturday nite. Live music. BYOB.”
What? Do you cretins get it? This day is a hell a lot better than sitting around the Home and Garden show, eating turkey steroid sticks at the assinine County Fair, playing with your Hot Wheels at the idiotic drag races, or some night on the town eating at Chili’s before getting your Spokane culture at a $75 a ticket showing of “Cats” at the Opera House. Sit in on county or city comedy court and see the dysfunction of that reality You bet, Mariah and Contrarian, this is a day about whatever you want it to be, but don’t define it for me, the K-12 students showing up, and through some artificial lens from some essayist. Read Derrick Jensen. He’s a friend, so is Chrles Bowden. I’m not stupid enough to bring those critiques to everything tied to what Contrarian Retrograde need as part of their emmancipation from stupidty. Let them rot in the complaint barf bag. These are organizations, coming together in this event, not so unlike “unity in the community,” coming to this Earth Day, want to because they are working on policy, land use, citizenship, science, some sort of planning and future. It’s not about lock step mentality, about some UN agenda, or about the failure of both Mariah and this Conan the Barbarian freak calling him/erself Contrarian to even understand what Earth Day means and what it can’t accomplish.
Look at the people and kids and others showing up. WSU raptor club talking about rehabilitating birds of prey. Sustainable Works doing retrofits in the community. Aquifer group taling about Contrarian’s toilet fetish and grass orgasm. Building blue bird houses so 300 people — kids — have some other frame than Contrarian’s Spokane blitz of nothingness. Second Harvest there. Sure, no hunger in Contrarian’s past or future. A street party.
Get it?
It happens to be Earth Day, the 40th, and this is a celebration and some sort of time for young people to not stay polluted with the light liberal influence of retreat and fear or the “Contrarian” polluted illogic of saying everything he considers Liberal or Scientific is wrong.
Naysayer? Creep with a sad little desire to be on Comedy Central? What’s commercial about local businesses coming out and trying to get a handle on sustainable development?
Cult holiday? It’s on Saturday, shifted to accomodate Mister Contrarian’s fine corporate lock step hailing to Walmart smiley face. Ain’t no blues in this event, and ain’t no white guy tooting his horn.
Believe me, I know how to deal with the folly of this guy’s faux devil’s advocacy line of tripe. He’s just another star on the “blog complaint sphere.” I wouldn’t have bothered retorting to his dribbling and lumbering expository mindless crap, you know, unless someone had brought it to my attention.
Come on out, little Tea Bag lady-man, and have a chat with me. I’ll be there — Gaia mask and all. BYOB — Bring Your Own Boob indeed. You couldn’t have characterized yourself better, honcho pequeno. Happy Earth Day, brother.
Paul, that was uncalled for. Be passionate, be urgent, be honest, but don’t be a bully.
Paul Haeder wrote,
“These are organizations, coming together in this event, not so unlike “unity in the community,” coming to this Earth Day, want to because they are working on policy, land use, citizenship, science, some sort of planning and future. It’s not about lock step mentality . . .”
The irony there is striking. Er, Paul, “policy, land use, planning” and “lock step mentality” are one and the same thing. The aim of the former — enforced by State goons, of course — is precisely the latter.
There is no “unity in the community” in communities of 200,000+ people, nor will there ever be. Instead you have assorted cults competing to create one by force, via “policy” and “planning.”
Enjoy the party. But don’t take its nominal purpose seriously.
Contrarian – you have some good points. I think, however, that when a holiday/idea/festival reaches a certain threshold of public attention, this is a good thing. I don’t think anyone my age or younger would even know the word “recycle,” let alone the concept, without the annual Earth Day festivals available to us in our formative years.
This being said, you have a point: Spokane needs to be kept aware of these issues, to be educated in a public way, and to hold conversations about global warming and actions which everyday people can do to lessen their carbon footprint, etc.
Paul,
I agree with gaeyia that you are being a bully. Calling someone a “cretin” first off the bat is really, really not a good way to get their attention and earn their participation and interest in your point of view.
I say bravo Paul, bravo!
No one will accuse you of taking yourself too seriously with this one.
Anna and gaeyia, please understand who we’re dealing with here with Contrarian. He’s a professional speed bump who hangs out on message boards and comments sections all day to tell people whey something is wrong but NEVER offers any solutions on how to fix them. It’s mostly a waste of time to even engage his kind, but even a bigger waste of time to try and “bring them along”. He’s a lost cause – I personally don’t want his participation and interest in our point of view. Now give me an impressionable mind or a young, lost soul, and I’ll gladly work at earning their participation.
See the rest of you greenies tomorrow on Main Street!
Peace
Bart wrote,
“It’s mostly a waste of time to even engage his kind, but even a bigger waste of time to try and “bring them along”. ”
Well, there goes your “unity in community.” You’ve proved my point.
Contrarian,
Your wrote: “The irony there is striking. Er, Paul, “policy, land use, planning” and “lock step mentality” are one and the same thing. The aim of the former — enforced by State goons, of course — is precisely the latter.”
Unfortunately, part of the problem with our environmental and land use laws is that the agencies charged with enforcing them are not. As a result out river suffers and the citizen developed land use plans go largely ignored.
It takes groups like the one Paul referred to and many others to watch dog the government to make sure they are doing the job that we pay a lot of money for them to do.
And contrarian, I think you just proved Barts point.
Riverkeeper wrote,
“As a result out river suffers and the citizen developed land use plans go largely ignored.”
No, they haven’t. Ask any developer how much money they’ve spent in the last 10 years navigating that labyrinth. Where did you get the idea that some citizens are entitled to dictate to other citizens how to develop their property?
Also, to what “suffering” of the river do you refer?
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Spovangelist great to see you last weekend at the Earth Day event. I found a lot of really unique stuff and some great information on how to make a positive impact in the community. I had a birthday party later that night and ended up finding a card made by someone in Haiti, all the proceeds went to their relief efforts. Awesome time and a great cause all around!
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