Earth Day Here We Come

Ooohh goody, it’s time to break out the shredded jeans, tie-dye t-shirts and Birkenstocks, because it’s Earth day baby! Get ready to plant a tree and wave the peace sign! Oh but don’t fret, come Saturday you can put your velour jumpsuit back on, hop in your SUV and feel free to toss your McDonald’s to-go bag out onto the side of the highway. That is of course, so long as you know that in a couple years you’ll have acid rain pouring down, hurricanes blowing the South to smithereens and high levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) inside you leading to feminization, low sperm count and hermaphroditism. As long as you’re ok with that future though, on Friday go ahead and enjoy the sense of nobleness planting a tree might bestow upon you for a day.
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to join you. Instead of having the light heart that will be floating inside your chest, mine will be heavy and distressed with the knowledge of what the future may look like as another Earth day comes and goes and no significant steps have been made in reducing our destructive impact on the environment. Studies have shown that humans’ effects on the environment are expected to exacerbate present drought risks, destroy coral reefs, degrade freshwater supplies, increase soil erosion, lead to further deforestation, and warm the Earth’s temperatures enough to significantly melt the snow and ice we are vitally dependent upon. Yet you are satisfied with your one tree planting for the year. That is impermissible.
Ignorance will not lead to solutions. Instead, a revolution throughout society must occur in order to ensure the continuation of life. At the individual, community and government levels drastic changes must be made, which will not be apparent on only a single day a year, but will be ingrained in society.
For the individual, even small commitments can lead to large improvements in environmental quality. According to the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, for every gallon of gasoline saved, 20 lbs of CO2 are kept out of the atmosphere. If every household in the US replaced just one incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, 90 million pounds of global warming pollution would be saved over the lifetime of the bulbs. Additionally if a person recycled only half of their newsprint, glass, plastic, metal, and cardboard, 2,400 lbs of CO2 would be saved in a year. These small changes are easily implemented and have vitally affects the environment.
At the community level, public transportation must become more accessible, public buildings should be required to use renewable energy and recycling programs must be implemented and promoted. It is at this level that the greatest changes in the public’s lifestyle can be influenced.
At the national level, the elected administration must take a more active and stringent approach. Between 2002 and 2012 the Bush administration expects greenhouse-gas emissions to increase by 11 percent. This will be a 0.6 percent decrease from the previous decade and therefore laudable by the Bush administration, which has committed to lessening “greenhouse gas intensity” (US Climate Action Report). Such a petty goal as 0.6 percent however, is hardly worth applause.
Carbon dioxide molecules stay in the atmosphere for as long as 200 years, therefore the incremental reduction of emissions that the Bush administration is advocating, “will not stabilize atmospheric CO2 levels,” as climate researcher Wallace Broecker of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory argues. “They only slow the increase.” This policy is similar to other policies of the administration and a general focus by the public on the present, ignoring the future.
Disregarding the impending effects of today’s actions however, neglects the duty we hold to future generations. Think of the feeling you have when you plant your tree on Earth day, your children and grandchildren should be able to enjoy that same experience. To ensure them that joy, steps must immediately be taken to secure the stability of the planet. I therefore ask you, on this Earth day, don’t just plant your tree and move on, but invoke a change in your lifestyle, promote a larger scale environmental consciousness in your community, and encourage policy makers to ensure a stable future through legal means. Security is dependent on change.