A common anti-Earth Day action is to do something bad for the environment: Rush Limbaugh encourages driving long distances. Another popular technique is to mention how, despite problems with environment, the environment still... exists; John Miller, writing on the National Review's blog last year, cited the fact that an Earth Day concert was threatened by rain as evidence that environmentalists did not understand the environment: "How are we supposed to trust these people on climate change if they can't even tell the truth about what's happening right on their own heads?"A few weeks ago, during Earth Hour, when people around the world were asked to turn their lights off for an hour to demonstrate solidarity with an effort to lower worldwide carbon consumption, conservatives gave a nice preview of their attitudes about Earth Day by launching a competing Human Achievement Hour. The hour seemed to consist of very little tangible action besides a video showing technological advancements from fire to spaceships to Jimi Hendrix (though Limbaugh claimed he turned on all the lights in all his five houses for the entire hour). The Earth Hour versus Human Achievement Hour dichotomy is a great illustration of the conservatives' Manichean view on the environment: any attempt at conservation must come at the expense of growth and the markets.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJX0-edz1wEOn the left:As eco-consciousness has gained popular appeal in recent years, some of the people at the forefront of the movement have gotten a little fed up. Our environment, they say, is in serious trouble and requires serious solutions. Dilettante environmentalists who recycle one bottle a week aren't going to cut it, and the only thing Earth Day does is pat people on the back who aren't doing close to enough. In other words, the small steps we are often encouraged to take are not enough for those people who feel that Earth Day is merely a band-aid.Last year, a few days before Earth Day, Alex Steffen and Sara Rich wrote on Worldchanging that: "The biggest problem with Earth Day is that it has become a ritual of sympathy for the idea of environmental sanity. Small steps, we're told, ignoring the fact that most of the steps most frequently promoted (returning your bottles, bringing your own bag, turning off the water while you brush your teeth) are of such minor impact (compared to our ecological footprints) that they are essentially meaningless without larger, systemic action as well."
A common anti-Earth Day action is to do something bad for the environment: Rush Limbaugh encourages driving long distances. Another popular technique is to mention how, despite problems with environment, the environment still... exists; John Miller, writing on the National Review's blog last year, cited the fact that an Earth Day concert was threatened by rain as evidence that environmentalists did not understand the environment: "How are we supposed to trust these people on climate change if they can't even tell the truth about what's happening right on their own heads?"A few weeks ago, during Earth Hour, when people around the world were asked to turn their lights off for an hour to demonstrate solidarity with an effort to lower worldwide carbon consumption, conservatives gave a nice preview of their attitudes about Earth Day by launching a competing Human Achievement Hour. The hour seemed to consist of very little tangible action besides a video showing technological advancements from fire to spaceships to Jimi Hendrix (though Limbaugh claimed he turned on all the lights in all his five houses for the entire hour). The Earth Hour versus Human Achievement Hour dichotomy is a great illustration of the conservatives' Manichean view on the environment: any attempt at conservation must come at the expense of growth and the markets.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJX0-edz1wEOn the left:As eco-consciousness has gained popular appeal in recent years, some of the people at the forefront of the movement have gotten a little fed up. Our environment, they say, is in serious trouble and requires serious solutions. Dilettante environmentalists who recycle one bottle a week aren't going to cut it, and the only thing Earth Day does is pat people on the back who aren't doing close to enough. In other words, the small steps we are often encouraged to take are not enough for those people who feel that Earth Day is merely a band-aid.Last year, a few days before Earth Day, Alex Steffen and Sara Rich wrote on Worldchanging that: "The biggest problem with Earth Day is that it has become a ritual of sympathy for the idea of environmental sanity. Small steps, we're told, ignoring the fact that most of the steps most frequently promoted (returning your bottles, bringing your own bag, turning off the water while you brush your teeth) are of such minor impact (compared to our ecological footprints) that they are essentially meaningless without larger, systemic action as well."
