Earth Day happened this past April without much attention, which is too bad because you might think that the sustainability of our existence would draw more attention. One event that might have helped – in one sense – is if the recent oil spill happened in late March rather than April. As a catalyst for discussion any natural disaster in March would really help because Earth Day really is poorly timed. Late April in much of the United States means that trees and flowers are blooming, foliage and grass are greening and people are beginning to enjoy time outside. At first glance it might seem that this is the perfect time to call attention to the earth, rather people will look out their windows and think well, things can’t be that bad.
Earth Day needs to be in the hottest days of summer or coldest days of winter. People need to be physically uncomfortable so that they stop and think about the current weather and consider change. The spring-time timing also hurts because the season is associated with things being born again and nature emerging from its winter slumber. Rather than the earth appearing to need our help, it seems to be doing fine on its own. The Gulf oil spill will draw attention to what happened, and for a few weeks people will care about the earth again but when flowers bloom, gardens produce and trees burn with fall colors all will be forgotten until some day next April.
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As with other posts, this was republished here because of is extinction elsewhere.
Mike Dariano 