by Kathleen Jensen

Created on: May 08, 2008

As conservation and climate change gain international attention, Earth Day has evolved from a grass-roots symbolic gesture into a mainstream American symbolic gesture. With all the recent attention to "going green" and "eco-friendly living", one would think that Earth Day might be taken a bit more seriously. But Earth Day, like our climate and our politicians, seems full of hot air.

Take, for example, Earth Day 2008 in Glendora, CA, a suburb of Los Angeles. Three days before Earth Day, the city held it's Earth Day Festival. On that day, residents were offered a free used-oil disposal as well as electronic waste disposal. However, old paint, pesticides and other hazardous chemicals were not accepted. There was a plastics/aluminum and glass recycling area with proceeds going to our local schools, desperately needed after the school district recently spent $10 million on a new Olympic-sized pool facility and expansion of student parking lots. When residents were finished recycling, they could buy food or drinks in disposable plastic containers from various vendors or could board gasoline powered shuttles to view gardens. Another option was the composting demonstration where anyone could learn to compost and then purchase plastic composting bins. For the kiddies, there was face-painting or a juggling show. It was a nice gesture all-in-all except for the problem finding parking for the hundreds of ginormous SUVs belonging to the attendees.

Three days later, April 22nd, Earth Day dawned bright and sunny. The typical morning traffic congestion had not eased one bit and the standard mile-long stream of gas-sucking vehicles appeared, as usual, in and around all the local schools. By mid-day, the lines at every fast food drive-thru were spilling onto the streets and trash cans were filled with single use plastic water bottles, styrofoam food containers and thousands of disposable coffee cups. With my own bags of household recycling in hand, I made my way to the local recycling center only to discover, to my shock, it was closed that day. A bit discouraged, I went to the supermarket with my own canvas shopping bag to buy some organic pasta and fresh veggies for dinner. The bagger on duty placed three items in my own bag, filling less than 1/3 of its capacity, then proceeded to use three additional plastic bags for the remaining six items. On my way home I listened to the latest drought warnings while I was detoured around bulldozers digging another new swimming pool.

Maybe in time Earth Day will come to really mean something but it clearly hasn't reached that status yet. It isn't a holiday, it doesn't even appear on most calendars. Most politicians and celebrities use the day to get their faces on TV, make some paid appearances then jump in their private jets or limos and rush to the next paid appearance. Its high time that our leaders start getting serious about America's excessive consumption...and I mean something other than the giant resource-sucking, trash producing, energy guzzling concerts that some "eco-leaders" favor. Otherwise, history may remember Earth Day as nothing more than our generation's biggest hypocrisy. Happy Earth Day!

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