Fricking Earth Day Again!

@EmperorNero,

People at my school have been celebrating Earth Week (because, you know, one day is not enough to give to the earth) and they make me want to go on a mission to collect as many plastic bags as I can, and dump them in Lake Michigan; purposely turn on everything in my apartment that uses electricity; not recycle; use as much disposable junk as I can; and burn large amounts of plastic. I am an environmentalist by virtue of my lifestyle--I am a poor college student that doesn't own a car, doesn't travel, typically shops at second hand stores, and frequents farmers markets, etc. Not to mention, one of my growing hobbies is studying and supporting urban political ecology. So the last thing I want is people telling me that I need to do my part, my fair share, or what I should/need to do.

What angers me most about this idea that we all need to pitch in and do our part or our fair share, is the fact that this attempts to spread guilt onto marginalized and poor individuals and communities that have suffer environmental injustice everyday. These people have nothing to do with the problem. What would be their fair share or their part--continuing to be poor and marginalized? This idea that we are all in this together and it is everyone's responsibility to "save" the environment is a totally bogus idea created by people that profit at the expense of others, and do not see how their lifestyles and choices affect others. To drag people into a crisis that they had nothing to do with the creation of shows how ignorant people are of the way things are.

My point in this rant is that Earth Day is stupid, because it gives people the impression that doing what is good for the environment for a single day or week will some how make up for the rest of the year. It also gives too many people the impression that the environment is everyone's problem, when in fact, the majority of the people of the world live within their means or below their means, and should not need to make any more sacrifices or go without more than they either do by choice or necessity. All Earth Day truly amounts to is a way for rich over consuming a$$holes to spread their complicity in environmental problems to the larger percentage of the inhabitants of earth, and so they can feel like they are environmentally conscious citizens doing their part. If they truly wanted to do their part, they would quit participating in things that force people, animals, and ecosystems to suffer at the hands of environmental injustice, while they live their sheltered ignorant lives.

@EmperorNero,

NoEmperorNero wrote:

Today is Earth Day.
"...designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment."
What does that even mean? Could you come up with a more complex euphemism for nothing?
All these fricking "_____ days" annoy me. I'm so tired of hearing about meaningless gestures. They conveniently allow us to never do anything.
How fricking encapsulated and decadent have we become that we actually believe any of this has some sort of value?
So much of contemporary life is about opportunities for self-congratulation. - Read that sentence very slowly, again and again.
I wish we could get fricking real!

The planet is ill. It suffers from toxicity. The ability to heal itself is compromised by a collective disregard and disrespect for its system. In short, we are taking more than she can give, and not allowing her a time of restoration. Awareness and appreciation is at least a start. It counters defeatism and apathy. Restoration projects that could well move beyond the grass roots level and into political priorities and values could not only give her a chance to heal, but also create a new industry that would create new jobs. We should explore the possibility of eliminating unnecessary or wasteful government programs which sap the government dole, and redistribute those funds toward restoration projects which give her the time to heal. Also, redistribute these available funds into avenues of research geared towards alternative energy sources to replace toxic energy sources. In addition, industrial pollution should be regulated and taxed heavily, with the understanding that either it cleans up its act, or faces termination expeditiously. The Earth has her own immune system. Given the chance, it will heal itself, and possibly increase its capacity to house our increase in population. It starts with awareness. We best do more. Time is now not on our side. Action should start now.

@EmperorNero,

Theaetetus,
Yeah! And you gave me a good laugh. : )

I just had a thought. While people in the modern western world become more atheist, they seem to find new actions and traditions that satisfy the fundamental needs, that Christian religion used to offer. Aren't these phony _____ days exactly like going to the confessional?

@Theaetetus,

Theaetetus wrote:

People at my school have been celebrating Earth Week (because, you know, one day is not enough to give to the earth) and they make me want to go on a mission to collect as many plastic bags as I can, and dump them in Lake Michigan; purposely turn on everything in my apartment that uses electricity; not recycle; use as much disposable junk as I can; and burn large amounts of plastic. I am an environmentalist by virtue of my lifestyle--I am a poor college student that doesn't own a car, doesn't travel, typically shops at second hand stores, and frequents farmers markets, etc. Not to mention, one of my growing hobbies is studying and supporting urban political ecology. So the last thing I want is people telling me that I need to do my part, my fair share, or what I should/need to do.

Thank goodness for thrift stores and farmers markets. You sound like me T. I'm poor and old.lol. The thing is, you young college students have the opportunity to undo the damage done by previous generations. I think you can.

@Elmud,

Elmud;59300 wrote:

The planet is ill. It suffers from toxicity. The ability to heal itself is compromised by a collective disregard and disrespect for its system. In short, we are taking more than she can give, and not allowing her a time of restoration. Awareness and appreciation is at least a start. It counters defeatism and apathy. Restoration projects that could well move beyond the grass roots level and into political priorities and values could not only give her a chance to heal, but also create a new industry that would create new jobs. We should explore the possibility of eliminating unnecessary or wasteful government programs which sap the government dole, and redistribute those funds toward restoration projects which give her the time to heal. Also, redistribute these available funds into avenues of research geared towards alternative energy sources to replace toxic energy sources. In addition, industrial pollution should be regulated and taxed heavily, with the understanding that either it cleans up its act, or faces termination expeditiously. The Earth has her own immune system. Given the chance, it will heal itself, and possibly increase its capacity to house our increase in population. It starts with awareness. We best do more. Time is now not on our side. Action should start now.

What I wanted to convey is that gestures make us feel good and serve our good conscience. They do not help anybody.
By preoccupying ourselves with gestures in the name of some cause we mostly make ourselves feel better.
I am advertising that each person either admits to not caring or starts doing something that will actually help solving the problem.
Only 10% of the effort put into meaningless gestures could do a lot of good.

---------- Post added at 05:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:14 AM ----------

Theaetetus;59299 wrote:

People at my school have been celebrating Earth Week (because, you know, one day is not enough to give to the earth)

What's also troubling to me is that nobody can be the voice speaking up against these gestures.
Who's going to be the "now lets be serious people, this is a silly gesture" guy?
These things tend to elevate themselves into ridiculousness, because it's really hard to argue against these utterly unspecific statements.

@Elmud,

Elmud wrote:

Thank goodness for thrift stores and farmers markets. You sound like me T. I'm poor and old.lol. The thing is, you young college students have the opportunity to undo the damage done by previous generations. I think you can.

The problem though, is that I am way too advanced in my years and experience, that even the young college kids won't listen to me. I was told that I am just bitter the other day by some 18 or 19 year olds raising to get people to recycle, reduce, and reuse. I told them that it was ridiculous that they even have to try to raise awareness to that idea, and that they should focus on the real problems such as environmental and social justice. Apparently, because of affirmative action, and the fact that we elected a black president we are a socially just society, and only the marketplace can decide whether we are environmentally just so we need to be sure to buy local when possible and not support companies that manufacture products in sweatshops.

The sad thing about the whole experience of mine this week is that these young adults have their hearts in the right place, think they are doing the right things and saying the right things, and as a result, feel that they are morally superior to other that seem to not be raising attention to environmental causes that are little more than cliches nowadays.

While I do think that my generation could do much to fix the damage of previous generations, I am a part of the lost generation, Generation X. Most in my grandparent's generation think we lack their morals, our parent's think we lack ambition, and the generations younger than us, think that we are out of touch and too much like their parents. I am a part of the last generation that knows what life was like before the cell phone and the Internet. We did not have computers surrounding our every day lives as children and we were the last generation that as children had to rely on face to face contact with out friends to form meaningful bonds.

Thanks Elmud for bringing that out of me. I finally understand my generations relationship to those that came before and those that came after. I am a part of the last generation that understands life before computer technology took over.

@Theaetetus,

Theaetetus;59315 wrote:

The sad thing about the whole experience of mine this week is that these young adults have their hearts in the right place, think they are doing the right things and saying the right things, and as a result, feel that they are morally superior to other that seem to not be raising attention to environmental causes that are little more than cliches nowadays.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
The crusaders thought they were doing the moral thing when butchering infidels.
Doing stuff that makes you feel morally superior and doing good does not correlate.

@EmperorNero,

NoEmperorNero wrote:

What I wanted to convey is that gestures make us feel good and serve our good conscience. They do not help anybody.
By preoccupying ourselves with gestures in the name of some cause we mostly make ourselves feel better.
I am advertising that each person either admits to not caring or starts doing something that will actually help solving the problem.
Only 10% of the effort put into meaningless gestures could do a lot of good.

---------- Post added at 05:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:14 AM ----------

What's also troubling to me is that nobody can be the voice speaking up against these gestures.
Who's going to be the "now lets be serious people, this is a silly gesture" guy?
These things tend to elevate themselves into ridiculousness, because it's really hard to argue against these utterly unspecific statements.

I am trying, but I am forced to deal with so much ridicule, anger, and hatred. I have been focusing on these people that think that one week of awareness amounts to a lifetime of change, but they honestly think I am insane. Even my "buy local" promoting friends cannot put their minds around it. They should be focusing on concerns that work towards making sure that people are paid what they deserve so they can actually buy local. Earth Day (or week) truly brings out how people with their heart in the right place, need people to put their brains into the proper focus.

---------- Post added at 10:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:17 PM ----------

As a final note, I think I am going to die far earlier than I should just because of this one Earth Day. For what ever reason, being an "environmentalist" has become a mass trend, and as a result, a popularity contest. Its not like environmental concerns were supposed to be turned into a situation similar to which brands or bands people favor. By allowing people to think they can support driving less, but be allowed to continue to pay less than they should for the goods they consume, does nothing to help reinforce the main problem with society in the first place that allowed the "earth crisis" to begin in the first place.

@EmperorNero,

Why would you try? I'm just cynical and don't try to argue with irrationality.

@EmperorNero,

The only reason why I try, is because these people decided to confront me, rather than let me be. I figure that if people want to try to give me food for thought, I will give it back to them. I applaud effort, but I feel I must do my part to try to direction it to the proper place. I am an educator at heart, and thus, feel that many of these people are a result of mass ignorance on their parents and teachers due to society, and only need someone to guide their attention. Unfortunately, I have no one from Hollywood throwing money at me like they did with Al Gore, so it is obvious who these people would rather follow.

@EmperorNero,

Yeah, you're right. But what can you do?
This made me sad, the world is not governed by logic any more. It's all appeals to emotion and peoples prejudge.
How can we solve all of societies problems? Teach everybody logic.
Alternatively, we could require a logic test for people to vote.

@EmperorNero,

Major issues concerning the day to day living experience of a people effect change only intergenerationally unless there is a cataclysmic happening. The propoganda machine normally has to take hold of a full two to three generations if not more before real change happens. For example take human rights issues in the U.S. from slavery to today, it didn't all happen in one big action. For the civil rights movement of the 60's to happen the groundwork had to be layed in the minds of children who would grow up to make a difference. The same is true of integral and ideological every day things being lost from a culture/society. Granted a couple generations may be too late for some environmental change, and Earth Day seems just like another Hallmark Holliday, but its far from useless or hypocritical.

@EmperorNero,

If the environmental movement has as much of an effect as the civil rights movement has over the last 40 years, future generations will be totally screwed. Sure, the U.S. elected an African American leader, which is a major accomplishment, but in other regards racism is still a major problem in the country. For example, environmental racism continues to be an major problem that gets worse as the inner city tax bases decline, and the more fortunate try to find places to site toxic facilities where there is little political opposition due to the citizens being marginalized by economic, political, and racial issues.

@Theaetetus,

yeah sort of my point, you can trace the civil rights movement back to before the official start of the country with the abolitionist movement. Changing an ingrained pattern for an entire species won't happen in one generation. I agree that Earth Day is too little too late, I am simply trying to get accross that it is not useless and its not hypocritical, its valuable by expressing the importance of what our great grandchildren will see as necessary.

@GoshisDead,

Have you guys been joking this whole time? You take issue with Earth Day?

Oh, it's too little, too late. Maybe, but better than nothing, that's certain.

Oh, it's just a silly ritual to replace religious ritual. Maybe, but what's wrong with that? Humans have always practiced communal rituals; its natural to our species. A communal ritual wherein we focus on the plight of our environment seems not only natural to our species (we've been doing this sort of thing for tens of thousands of years) but also relevant to our time given the unprecedented breakdown of natural systems caused by our own arrogance.

Skepticism is healthy. Cynicism is pathetic.

@EmperorNero,

I am sort of joking, but I am skeptical of things like Earth Day. My main problem is that I get sick of some people's attitude that get out of hand during the days surrounding Earth Day. All of a sudden people that do not seem to care about the environment any other time of the year, decide that they are activists and need to harass others or push their limited understanding upon others. I get angry because they bellow empty slogans like "think global buy local" and whatever other cliches that the environmental movement adopt.

Not to mention, I hear some of the most ridiculous "facts" about global warming, and all it does is distort other people's viewpoints, or causes them to adopt ignorant things due to other people's ignorance.

As I said, I am an environmentalist by nature--I am a poor college student with no car, bike and walk everywhere I can or I ride the bus, and I shop at farmers markets and second hand stores. I am also working towards being an urban ecology theorist. Nothing pisses me off more than people trying to tell me what I need to do for the environment or telling me things that are just not true.

@Didymos Thomas,

Didymos Thomas;59807 wrote:

Oh, it's just a silly ritual to replace religious ritual. Maybe, but what's wrong with that?

Atheists all the time call religion is stupid and backwards, but giving it another name is suddenly enlightened.

Didymos Thomas;59807 wrote:

Skepticism is healthy. Cynicism is pathetic.

Being a fad following sheep is pathetic.

@EmperorNero,

EmperorNero wrote:

Atheists all the time call religion is stupid and backwards, but giving it another name is suddenly enlightened.

Yes, atheists all of the time say all sorts of things. So what?

I'm not saying Earth Day is religion, only that Earth Day is a communal practice by which humans highlight their relationship to the natural world. This sort of practice is natural to man and healthy.

EmperorNero wrote:

Being a fad following sheep is pathetic.

You bet. However, you will have a hard time criticizing the practice of Earth Day for this reason unless you make sweeping generalizations that are impossible to demonstrate.

Theaetetus - I sympathize with you. It's a shame when people harass others, a shame when they take up a cause one day and forget the cause the next day. But that's no criticism of Earth Day, that's a criticism of certain individuals.

@Didymos Thomas,

Didymos Thomas;59823 wrote:

You bet. However, you will have a hard time criticizing the practice of Earth Day for this reason unless you make sweeping generalizations that are impossible to demonstrate.

Theaetetus - I sympathize with you. It's a shame when people harass others, a shame when they take up a cause one day and forget the cause the next day. But that's no criticism of Earth Day, that's a criticism of certain individuals.

Generalizations, that are impossible to demonstrate, okay. But what else is earth day for?
Who doesn't forget about it the next day?

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