Time to observe those tree-huggers sending out an SOS with dire warnings to take heed. It's all about conservation. And awareness. And appreciation through trademarked events that require registrations but somehow always end up meaning that promotion is ultimately about bottom line. Legit has become generic with all this hybrid-driving, organic granola crunching, veggie head, birkenstock wearing, rainforest preserving, recycling-biodegradable, climate concerned saviors of & warriors for the planet earth... I'm all for environmentalism but enthusiasm has a way of giving in to lame snorefests & gung-ho neo-hippies seem like the same people who tell you how truly delicious gluten-free probiotic snack crackers are (when in truth, they taste like the packaging real snacks come in). Smug moral obligation shouldn't exactly be the festive themes we celebrate. I'm all for paradise but the incessant & annoying preachy, pretentious do-gooders are steering me off course. I want to care about the planet. I admire David Suzuki. I wish I could have been more galvanized after seeing Al Gore's documentary. It isn't lost on me that after that whole BP Gulf of Mexico mess, last year wass also the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. If there is a euphoria for this big blue marble where we all reside, one certainly can't beat an oxygenated atmosphere if you’re in the mood for breathing but I'm just not feeling the emotion as half of Mother Nature's majesty is inanimate & the other half is trying its best to make a meal out of people (no matter how much gingko-ginseng tea consumption & rousing choruses of kumbaya are going on). Animals? I love them. And how they taste. Trees? Well, I know where my paper & maple syrup is coming from and when eco-geddon comes, the globe will continue to exist thriving long after we’re toast because like any healthy ecosystem it will adapt to the abuse of our surroundings by attempting to kill us off. More trees in more cities offsets carbon emissions, lowers needs for energy use by providing shade & protection from wind and ultimately they provide a foundation for a healthy, self-regulation in the interaction of climate, plants, animals & landscape. Biodiversity is key to this functioning by protecting people from disease, saving money & warding off climate change. The massive resource bonfire that is rainforest destruction & factory farming is in the process of cooking us. So maybe in a way, environmentalism isn't about loving nature or saving Earth - it’s about loving humans and saving humans from a painful & ugly extinction. So what’s with "Earth Day"? (Today being the 40th anniversay, no less), maybe if we emphasized what was actually at stake here (as opposed to 'get in line or perish'), we’d be all the more motivated to do our part. Leaving the car in the garage to "save the Earth"? Sounds nice, bigshot, but people have places to be. So yeah, we can unite against global warming and cite endless primers on carbon footprints, industrial anarcho-primitivism, species eco-disaster, pollution & the auto industry conspiracy involving fuel all in the name of being joined from opposite ends of the world, but doing so to avoid seeing eventual grandchildren burned alive or drowned in an inland-marching ocean? Hmm, where did I put that Metropass? Seriously though, isn't self-preservation everyone's game? Maybe we should change the name to "Triage Day". Kermit the Frog, your signature song never rang truer.
In Sept 2008, Ecuador became the first country in the world to recognize & legally enforce ecosystem rights in its Constitution.
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