Earthday….Not Just Today, But Everyday
Here is a little background and a bit new foreground about Earthday.
Earthday was officially founded on April 22, 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin with the goal of putting environmental issues into the limelight. Nelson announced his nationwide grassroots movement in September of 1969 at a conference in Seattle and later said that “it was a gamble, but it worked.” This tradition has continued annually under the same mission for decades and although our environmental situation today is more desperate than ever, Earthday remains the same grassroots movement it spawned from. It’s time to evolve our thinking about Earthday and think about getting rid of it all together.
I believe that the concept of Earthday is obsolete. If the goal was to bring awareness to the demise of our planet we have certainly reached it. When you turn on the television and see network logos colored in green and big box stores like Wal-Mart announcing their dedication to saving the planet, I would argue that this movement is more than “in the limelight”, it has gone global.
Although I would like to give all the credit to Earthday, I cannot justifiably do so. For me, one of the tipping points (the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable) in this movement was not our beloved Earthday, but rather the box office hit and #1 bestselling book in 2006- An Inconvenient Truth.
Presented by former Vice President Al Gore, this film quickly brought to our attention the true nature of our climate crisis and the realization of what our days on earth might be like in the not so distant future. Do you not agree that after we all saw this movie or heard others talk about it that our pop culture was instantly flooded with terms like “global warming” and products that were labeled “green”? An Inconvenient Truth is not the end-all-be-all but it certainly launched a movement. As we find ourselves at this tipping point we have only one option - to embrace this “momentum for change” with everything we have.
Earthday has had its place in history and has been successful up to this point. With our current scientific knowledge and our undeniable freedom of choice, we must no longer stand idle. This situation demands a life-long daily commitment by each of us if we are to have any hope for our children and grandchildren. Our actions today will set a powerful example for generations to come - our health, happiness and future depend on it. This is a fight we can surely win but we must not only do it every April 22, we must do it everyday.
Earthday IS everyday and our actions need to follow. Let’s save the celebration for when we have begun to see the negative effects of our past actions dissolved by our renewed global vow to live responsibly.
I would love to hear your thoughts? Send your comments.
Its challenging to only dedicate one day to the celebration of the Earth. Earthday should be every day!
Maybe we should coin a new catch-phrase like “Earthmillenium” or “Eartheternity”
EarthDay for me is like Christmas - the spirit of it should transform our actions throughout the year. Unfortunately we only ACT in terms of focal points such as Christmas. For me, success comes in small modifications to behavior made on a consistent basis - think losing weight. You don’t have to go on a massive diet to make a successful change. In fact you are more likely to maintain success if you only modify your habits a little at a time. For a collective action problem, such as climate change, if we all made even slight modifications to our habits it would have an enormous impact.
On a side note - Gaylord - ouch. Won’t be naming our kid that.