Earth Day is a great reminder to toss our empty water bottles into the blue trash bins instead of the regular trash bins, and to maybe not spit out gum on the sidewalk. Some schools might organize a service trip or plant a tree, or for SXU students, those on campus might simply make the trek to the library to print double sided. Saving money and trees, now that’s something to get behind.
As a kid, Earth Day seemed like a big deal. After all, back in the day Nickelodeon postponed their daily cartoons for the World Wide Day of Play. Earth Day had to be important if they canceled my daily viewing of SpongeBob, right? Well, yes and no.
Looking back on how Earth Day was treated then and now, I have mixed feelings on the concept of “Earth Day.”
The conception of Earth Day happened during a wild and turbulent time in American history. The idea came from a Wisconsin senator and Earth Day’s official founder, Gaylord Nelson, after witnessing an oil spill that occurred in Santa Barbara, California in 1969.
Hoping to channel some of that anti-war energy that was exerted by students all over the nation, Nelson and his team decided to organize an event on April 22, 1970. On that day, over 20 million Americans took to the streets to protest various environmental injustices. Topics like pesticide usage, toxic dumps, and loss of wilderness that was protested about then are just as relevant now as they were back in 1970.
Although more organized, it seems to me that Earth Day has lost its “spark,” that it had in the 1970s. We don’t have people taking to the streets in droves protesting the government and major corporations about environmental injustices as it happened in 1970. Now it’s the government that is the pushing out annual cheesy TV advertisements.
Earth Day, to my understanding, has become sensitized and an easy pill to swallow.
Does Earth Day serve as a successful reminder to limit our impact on the earth? Again, yes and no. I’d argue for the “yes” answer if we ignore longevity in our commitment to be sustainable. Sure, maybe we’d take up using water bottles for a week, but how long would it take before we start buying plastic disposable water bottles? Or to not recycle?
My point is, is having one day dedicated to the care of the earth and its inhabitants a good enough reminder to base the rest of the year off of? That is where I’d argue the “no” answer. How impactful really is one day out of the rest of the year? And if the impact is relatively minimal in terms of changing our environmentally detrimental habits, how can we make celebrating the earth an everyday thing?
Don’t get me wrong, planting trees and learning ways to limit waste is a good thing. Not everyone wants to call off work every every time April 22nd rolls around to chain themselves to a tree or buy a plane ticket to protest near the White House’s gates.
But, it is worth thinking about if the “sanitization” of Earth Day makes it easier for those governments and corporations who are heavily polluting our earth to get away with what they’re doing, if the focus was more on how we the people can change, rather than how we the people as a mass can advocate for a change.
James Cantu
Opinions Editor