How can we measure the success of Earth Day?
Can we judge it by its humble beginnings in the late Sixties and early Seventies, a period of human history when nearly every social norm was questioned and uprooted? Should its founder, Gaylord (don't laugh) Nelson, a believer in the racist and classist myth of overpopulation, be hailed as a hero? God knows how the Earth committees have tried to remove the stink of Ira Einhorn, the infamous Unicorn Killer and MC of the first Earth Day in 1970.
Can we judge Earth Day by the myths it puts out, particularly the ones that guilt people into doing things that are impractical or support rather unsustainable practices? After all, guilt is a very good motivator and what feels better than going through the motions of something just to make yourself feel good, regardless of the true meaning?
Can we measure the success of Earth Day by how we goad school children into making endless papier-mache projects for "Mother Earth" that will ultimately line a rubbish bin? We can't teach them basic spelling, nor can we explain to them that they are missing several classmates through eugenics programs, but we can teach them that CO2, one of the most common elements on the planet, is the reason why the Earth will end if they don't recycle their many pop bottles?
Is Earth Day an all-encompassing affair that excludes China's environmental transgressions but not the US'? How about Canada? For a signatory of the Kyoto Accord, it hasn't done a lot.
How about we judge it for what it is: a secularist, sentimentalist waste in every respect.
If you want to be a steward of the Earth, stop throwing your garbage everywhere, stop wasting stuff, stop buying poisonous dollar-store crap and most importantly, stop buying the hype!
Also, happy bEarthday, Big M. and Immanuel Kant (see what I did there!)
***PS- in the movie, Angels and Demons, the camerlengo poisoned the science-believing Pope, something to do with anti-matter, Camerlengo Ventresca was the birth son of the late Pope (whatever), Cardinal Mortati is selected as the new Pope and Langdon receives a package from the new Pope in the end. In case you thought the hackneyed novel would translate better into film, the answer is no so save yourself eight bucks- and the environment by not driving to the theatre, buying paper and cardboard tickets and popcorn containers.***
1 comment:
The Church supported Copernicus(heliocentrism) and other scientists. The Vatican Observatory is one of the oldest in the world. I'm so disappointed in Ewan McGregor for appearing in a film created by such a hack.
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