The (deputy) director's cut

Earth Day. You’d think groups like Greenpeace would love a holiday-status occasion that's centered around Nature and Ecology. Truth is, as it relates to the greater environmental movement, Earth Day is something of a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, it’s great to have a day where everyone celebrates the earth and thinks about the environment. In classrooms across the country, kids are learning about ecology and issues that range from pollution and global warming to endangered species. Communities everywhere hold events to celebrate the planet and do something that’s good for it, with themes that include Clean the Park, Bike to Work and Plant a Tree. For one day each year, the environment is center stage, and issues pertaining to its health and well being are on the minds of just about everyone.

On the other hand, there’s an element of Earth Day that resembles the tradition of people who just go to church on Christmas Eve. How many individuals each year sit in the pews during this annual Yuletide church excursion and vow to be better people, only to conveniently slip back into their normal patterns of not-so-saintly behavior right about the time New Years Eve kicks off? Probably about as many as vow to do something good for the environment on Earth Day, then on April 23^rd continue to ride to work alone in their SUV’s, buy way too much plastic, chemlawn their yards and leave on every light in the house.

And of course there’s the corporate piece. At Christmas you have big business leveraging a spiritual holiday to increase sales and ramp up their bottom line. For Earth Day, polluting corporations annually attempt to use it as a marketing stage, to fraudulently convince consumers that they really are ecologically friendly despite the millions of pounds of poison they spew into the air and water every day. The common term for this is "greenwashing", which is the marketing equivalent of spraying whipped cream and expensive perfume on a steamy pile of horse dung.

Thus the "catch" to April 22. Everyone becomes more ecologically aware on this holy day of eco-freaks, but few carry it over into their daily lives. And the very corporations who are the biggest part of the problem use the occasion to disingenuously paint themselves green.

The way I see it, even with its flaws, anything that puts the environment on center stage and gets people around the world to pay attention, even if it’s only for a day, is a good thing. It’s certainly better than nothing. It’s always heartening for me personally when my kids bring home their Earth Day projects, and it’s even more encouraging that the environment has been a recurring theme in their curriculum throughout the year. If children are coming home from school talking about how global warming threatens polar bears, maybe parents will start to listen. Maybe that’s the seed that causes this year’s park cleanup to lead to a change in lifestyle. Maybe on the 23^rd, the Hummer gets swapped for a Prius , you rip up the Chemlawn contract, you stop buying gas from Exxon and tissues from Kleenex, and you install energy efficient lights in your home. This year, start living the line that every day is Earth Day. And do your part to take the catch out of April 22.