Happy Day, Earth.

It's Earth Day!

One part of me immediately thinks, "Isn't every day Earth Day?" or perhaps is that some kind of hippy cerebral malfunction that thinks we should cherish our resources everyday rather than pissing them away for a year and changing our ways for 12 hours? Cynical treehugger, am I.

Since it is annual 'Remember We Don't Live On An Unending Resource' day, I want to vent for a hot second. I am highly annoyed at the increasingly recent trendiness of 'going green'. Don't get me wrong, I will continue to believe that we should be doing everything we currently are and more toward the objective of not killing our blue planet, but I'm getting really annoyed with environmentalism being some kind of yuppie market trend.

You do not need to BUY the reuseable bags at the store. I bet you have some at your house that would work just fine. Who cares if they match?

You do not need to BUY 'green' cleaning items. Most of them are still produced using a crazy amount of energy and fossil fuel and none of them really do any better (or safer) job than baking soda, hot water, and vinegar (not necessarily all used together).

We do not need to convince people that consumerism is the only answer to a clean planet. Consumerism is how we got here in the first place. We bought bought bought bought crap we didn't need, that used tons of resources to produce, that wouldn't biodegrade, and then we threw it away when we forgot about it or stopped caring about it's existence. Consumerism is the OPPOSITE of the answer. Reduction, reuse, recycling, and pure simplicity are the ways we don't incinerate ourselves into an ecological disaster.

I'm glad that 'green living' is getting more PR. I just hate that it has to be in the form of advertising and BS. Trends are not consistent, nor long term by design. Framing this movement, that some of us have been heavily involved in for a long, long, long time as an ad campaign, a cool spring idea, a new way to do things (for now) is not going to serve us in the long term, tragically. That's why it irritates me. We're pretending that we care about carbon emissions by building hybrid SUVs, and it's driving me crazy.


So, do something productive for the planet today, lovelies. Something that doesn't involve you spending money on adding more crap to your house. Don't get pulled into the trap. Simplify. Reduce. Find a new use for things you don't regularly use anymore or find a new home for them. Stop wasting food and buying out of season produce. Support local food and production. Be kind to animals, and avoid eating them if you are so inclined. Take a walk. Breath the sweet air of spring. Be happy to live here, and say thank you to the planet and the universe for the chance.


Simply,

Em.