Earth Day - an excellent meditation
The Silicon Graybeard
reposted his excellent
Earth Day 2011:
Earth Day
Earth Day, as most of you know, is a holiday made up in the late 1960s at the start of the national environmental movement. Ira Einhorn is one of the main founders of Earth Day, if not the guy who started it. Ira practiced what he preached: he murdered his girlfriend (less stress on the planet) and composted her body in his closet. (Hey - reduce, re-use, recycle!)You won't find Ira Einhorn's name listed in any of the Earth Day promotional literature, as the organizers have taken great pains to distance themselves from this man, at least since he became better known for composting his girlfriend in a trunk in his closet for a couple of years in the late 1970s.
I was a science geek in high school in 1970, the first Earth Day, and indoctrinated into the liberal crap of the day. Who can forget the commercial with the crying Indian ("Iron Eyes Cody", who - BTW - was Italian, not Native American) looking at the spoiled earth. Caught up in the spirit of the day, we went looking for pollution, and tested a local canal for coliform bacteria.
The movement led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, probably the best example of an agency that has outlived its usefulness.
I suppose the ethos of modern America requires that I say I consider myself an environmentalist. Long before 1970 and ever since, I've been a fisherman, hiker, camper, cyclist, runner, biathlete (I'm a really crappy swimmer...) and outdoor photographer. I want a clean, healthy environment. Nobody wants dirty air or water, nobody wants pollution, nobody wants to make themselves or their children or anybody else or anybody else's children sick. Can we get away from those useless stereotypes and be grown ups from now on?
That said, 95% of being environmentally responsible is cleaning up after yourself. Most of the rest of that last 5% is recognizing "there is no such place as 'away' where you throw things". All you do is relocate your problem from right under your nose to somewhere else.
I don't think there's anyone alive who remembers the 1960s that doesn't think we're better off today than we were then. The laws removing lead from gasoline and paint removed tons of the metal from the environment. Removal of combustion products of Nitrogen from vehicle exhaust, reduction of sulfur emissions at power plants, and mandating catalytic converters to remove heavier combustion products are all big steps.
Much more at the site -- a wonderful essay and examination of what
real environmentalism is all about.
Well worth your time to read.
Posted by DaveH at April 23, 2013 12:06 PM