Earth Day, to be observed for the 40th time on April 22, ranks just below motherhood and ahead of baseball and apple pie on the American cultural hit parade.
Gaylord Nelson.Photo: Fritz AlbertWorldwide, organizers say a billion people will observe Earth Day this year, making it the largest secular civic event in the world. So why doesn’t it get more respect?
“Screw Earth Day,” says Grist. We should live every day like it’s Earth Day, not just be on our best environmental behavior once a year.
Wouldn’t that be nice?
In an ideal world, every day would be Earth Day and every person would be environmentally conscious every waking moment. Of course, an ideal world wouldn’t be experiencing global warming, either, but it is. We are a long way from environmental Utopia.
Gaylord Nelson, the Wisconsin senator and environmental visionary who founded Earth Day in 1970, wouldn’t be surprised by criticism. Even as the idea was widely accepted and 20 million people participated in the first observance, Earth Day came under fire from both the political right and left.
The arch-conservative John Birch Society c... Read more
