Jennifer OladipoOnce I started to honestly contemplate the issue at hand, a tiny wave of anxiety came over me. I’d sat down ready to list all the reasons why Earth Day Matters, but none came. None that I believed in wholeheartedly. OK, the commemorative day is certainly a useful tool for organizing events, and a great time to trot out corporate responsibility efforts. It might gently tug on the consciences of the aware-but-unconverted, and could conceivably be a revelation for the few hundred people who haven’t yet heard how fashionable it is to be green. Oh, and kids. Maybe for some children Earth Day could be a first exposure to environmentalism, as it was for me. Even though I’d been playing outside, gardening, and helping Mom pick up organic meat and eggs at an Amish farm by age 11, Earth Day sort of put it all together, gave it a brand.
Today, I’m not sure that brand carries the same cache. At a time when every magazine from Vanity Fair to St. Louis Monthly has a regular green issue — wait, scratch that. The green issue craze might be on the bust end of its bubble now that Vanity Fair is nixing its own after acknowledging the green glut ... Read more
