Conscious Choice: Is Earth Day Obsolete?

April 2003

Is Earth Day Obsolete?

A die-hard Earth Day advocate reflects on the April 22nd observance and its relevance in a busy preoccupied society

by Carole Vande Velde

Thomas Heil should give a damn about the environment. But he doesn’t. Not now, not really. On paper, the 29-year-old Chicago resident has great potential to be green. He’s well informed, contemplative, and socially minded. He’s a committed cyclist and doesn’t own a car. When moved by a cause, he gives of his time and his checkbook.

Yet Heil, without hesitation or apologies, admits that he doesn’t recycle very much, except at work where the process is easy and assumed. "I’m aware of the issues," he says, "but it’s just not at the forefront of things that are important to me right now."

Unfortunately, the environment has a lot to compete with these days. We are busy thinking about war, or terrorism, or the condition of our emergency supply kits. We are reworking family budgets to accommodate a lost job. Or maybe we’re simply too weary from last season’s strange sequence of hits to our national psyche — the shuttle disaster, the nightclub tragedies, the passing of "Mr. Rogers" — to maintain the level of environmental dedication that normally defines our daily lives.

We could simply coast for a while, ride out this wave of apathy. But April means Earth Day, and so our complacency will be challenged, however briefly.

We’ve asked much of Earth Day since its inception in 1970. And Earth Day has risen to the occasion. It’s been a grassroots movement to promote the cause of environmentalism, "a collective expression of public will to create a sustainable society," according to the Web site for the Earth Day Network (EDN), a worldwide alliance of groups that organize events and programs for Earth Day and beyond.

Earth Day is also a time to consider the global footprint we leave just by virtue of being alive, and an opportunity for local gestures like planting a tree or cleaning up a neighborhood park. It’s at once a rally, a party, a field day, a fund-raiser, a philosophy, a call to action.

And with a permanent place on our calendar, Earth Day provides a natural space for reflection, an annual reporting day for us, the planet’s shareholders. So, despite the long list of political, cultural, and perhaps personal distractions, we have in Earth Day an opportunity to take stock of our environmental past and future, our successes and failures.

"I think that 30 years of advocacy to wake people up has been very successful," says Betsy Altman, coordinator for Chicago Earth Month, a coalition of area groups that has organized Earth Day activities since 2000. "We are certainly not done, but we have come an enormous distance."

Yet if we use Earth Day as a milestone and grant it some degree of credit for helping mark the trajectory of the modern environmental movement, then we must also begin asking whether a sense of encroaching apathy means the occasion has lost its power to captivate. In Chicago, at least, the immediate response isn’t good: Earth Day has been canceled.

Okay, that’s hyperbole. The truth is that parks, schools, corporations, and public and private institutions will again mark this year’s Earth Day with a range of events. Most will be serious and well planned, engaging participants with solid information or hands-on activities, and thousands will likely participate.

But a singular festival, the coordinated series of events organized citywide in recent years by Altman’s group, is not being planned for 2003. This means less publicity and less visibility, which will result in less participation overall.

The explanation is simple: "Not-for- profits are having a terrible time raising money," she said. This reality made it nearly impossible to begin necessary planning, and so the board of Chicago Earth Month decided to forego the celebration. With a nod to a more hopeful future, however (or perhaps an acknowledgment of our affinity for anniversaries that come in five-year chunks), Altman alluded to the future, predicting that the 2005 event will "be a catalyst" for further progress.

Environmentalists talk a lot about building, and Earth Day fits well into this model of advocacy. The first Earth Day was about building a level of awareness that would force certain issues into the nation’s consciousness. Results, direct or merely favorably timed, were impressive: the Clean Air Act of 1970 soon followed, as did the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Building suggests linear development. Once the Clean Air Act was law, for instance, advocates could shift gears, working to improve compliance or even looking ahead to the next big challenge. But linear progress has not always been the rule. In December 2002, the Bush Administration issued a final ruling that changed a key provision of the Clean Air Act which eliminates language that required the oldest and most polluting power plants to install modern controls when making major repairs. Supporters of the change believe the current system actually hinders emissions reductions by discouraging plant improvements and upgrades. Critics see it differently, and nine northeastern states have since challenged the change in court (a decision is pending).

It’s not unusual that significant legislation is revisited, given the polarity of our political system. As power shifts between the two major parties, priorities follow, and there is still serious debate over how best to answer — legislatively, at least — many of our most pressing environmental questions.

Yet progress can also be gauged through other measures, such as individual, familial, or neighborhood progress. And here, messages of Earth Day — like personal responsibility, sustainability, and local engagement — seem to have taken hold.

Such sentiments are supported by the numbers. In April 2000, weeks before the 30th anniversary of Earth Day, a poll by the Gallup Organization found that four of five respondents agreed with the goals of the environmental movement. In addition, more than two-thirds said they were either active with the movement or sympathetic to its goals.

By 2002, however, polls were showing something different. In May of last year Gallup asked Americans to rate the relative importance of fifteen issues, and the environment tied for last, along with energy policy. Only 24 percent of respondents considered the environment as an "extremely important" issue (terrorism captured the top spot, with 53 percent rating it as "extremely important").

As a result of these shifts in priorities, assumptions that we as a society really are invested in environmental concerns are once again vulnerable. In some cases, progress has stalled.

For instance, forward movement in the area of fuel efficiency is reversing course. According to the EPA, average gas mileage for new model cars has dropped for the third year in a row. Efficiency rates are now at the lowest they’ve been since 1980, and the percentage of new passenger vehicles that get 30 miles to the gallon or more is dropping.

Yet just as Chicago organizers see continued promise in the future of Earth Day, national groups remain equally optimistic. And while poll numbers suggest that momentum has stalled, there are other means of quantifying our current degree of engagement.

"In one sense, when we evaluate the strength of our network we do it numerically," says Eliza Barclay, media coordinator with Earth Day Network. These figures — membership rates, the number of countries who participate in Earth Day activities, the number of Earth Day events and year-round programs — show sustained growth and longevity.

Even setbacks may ultimately lead to positive results. "If anything, the lack of leadership at the federal level will mean more engagement at the local level," Barclay says.

EDN is getting ready to capitalize on a renewed interest in the cause with a voter-oriented campaign that leverages the prominence and energy of Earth Day to get people registered and then thinking about candidates’ environmental policies when they head to the polls. Barclay expects the campaign will have a tangible impact in the fight for our attention.

There is something classic and fundamental about a voter-registration drive. Is it a sign that Earth Day is going back to the basics? Rather than playing out as a day of fun (albeit one with a message), which can be long on media coverage but short on lasting results, Earth Day may be returning to traditional forms of political advocacy and social engagement as a way of reconnecting on an individual level. It’s subtler, but may prove more powerful.

For should-be environmentalists like Thomas Heil, the approach and the timing may finally be right. He knows there is more he could do, and he knows the information is out there waiting for him. "What will ultimately make the difference is that I will find a group I trust to filter the information for me," he says. "They will make things easy for me. And I’ll respond."

Carole Vande Velde has participated in and helped organize Earth Day events since 1990. This year she plans to mark the occasion tending seedlings in her vegetable garden.

Earth Day Notes & Happenings

Earth Day Network

Chicago Earth Month

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