Here on campus, somebody tied inane signs reading "hug me" to tree trunks while others sang Kumbaya on the old ice rink. But nothing really happened.
Our little blue marble was still dirtier after Earth Day than it was the day before. Cars still put more carbon in the air, Exxon still dumped more oil into the sea and our freshmen still threw away more plastic six-pack holders without cutting the rings. Evil doesn't take a vacation just because it's Earth Day.
Earth Day accomplishes absolutely nothing, yet we're told to celebrate it. Supporters say it's about "awareness." I've not yet met anyone unaware of the Earth.
The mere concept of Earth Day is ludicrous. Of all the days each year, environmentalists devote only one day to the Earth. And they don't always use this day to plant trees or pick up trash. Many, like those here at USD, use Earth Day to put on their best holier-than-thou attitude.
This year, they sat in the grass, playing music and spouting feel-good platitudes about how they're saving the Earth while we're part of the problem. With anti-Hyperion propaganda on full display and noses stuck high in the air, they practically dripped with moral superiority.
But while they sat comfortably on the grass, sunning themselves, content in their self-glorification, people who actually care about their communities were picking up trash along the highways, planting trees in their backyard and recycling everything they could. These people weren't hardcore environmentalists or hippies. They didn't have some political motivation to participate in Earth Day. They were just regular people trying to clean up their neighborhoods.
This is why the environmental movement has lost its mojo. It's so politicized and fanatical these days that there's no longer any room for regular people. You've got to be extreme or nothing. Heck, you can't even politely disagree with Al Gore without raising the ire of everyone from Greenpeace to the Earth Liberation Front. They've got their dog-eared copies of An Inconvenient Truth and no one's going to tell them any differently.
Earth Day even has a Web site. No joke. It contains the eternal wisdom of environmental gurus like Kevin Bacon and Zach Braff, who are apparently the highest moral authorities when it comes to recycling. I like Scrubs, but is this what we've come to? Zach Braff telling me how to sort plastics from newsprint? God help us.
The entire environmentalist movement needs to calm down. They need to stop scaring people with tales of impending doom. They're driving away good people over politics. They should shut up about drilling for oil in Alaska. I'd kill a caribou myself to pay a dollar a gallon for gas. More importantly though, environmentalists need to realize that its grassroots environmentalism that will keep the environment safe, not Congress telling us what light bulb to use.
We should work hard to keep the Earth clean. No one likes to breathe smog. But if there's any lesson to be learned from Earth Day, it's that real, effective environmentalism can't be dictated from Washington D.C., USD students or even the throne of Al Gore. A clean planet will happen not through Earth Day "celebrations" or Hyperion protests, but from average Joes doing their part.
Reach columnist Matt Hittle at Matt.Hittle@usd.edu.
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