Unhappy Earth Day
On the spirit of Earth Day vs. the reality, and how we might reclaim its founding values
Today’s Earth Day, and it’s hard not to have mixed feelings. On one hand, any opportunity to center the Earth and highlight its importance is a good thing. And yet — similar to other cultural events like PRIDE — Earth Day continues to drift further from its legacy and original intent in many ways. Earth Day promo sales and non-material corporate announcements dominate the internet and airwaves. And it can feel like we’re celebrating the change that isn’t happening, as much as celebrating the change that is — or should be.
Not to pick on Uber (and we do need to electrify transportation), but as we wrote last week, often the most sustainable thing to do is not doing anything at all — as much as that creates tensions for companies.
Let’s first remember the original 1970 Earth Day wasn’t a celebration or a press release event — it was a protest. A big protest, one of the largest in American history.
On April 22, 1970, an estimated 20 million Americans took to the streets, demanding politicians take action to protect the environment. Within a year, that first Earth Day led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.
Since then, Earth Day’s gradually lost mainstream attention and been privitized. There’ve been shining moments of hope and progress — and within the business ecosystem, Mastercard’s announcement this week it’s tying all employee bonsuses to the company hitting its ESG goals is the type of change we like to see — but if the actual trajectory of the Earth is any indication, maybe we should pass on Earth Day.
Of course, we don’t actually mean that. Despite all the data, we remain hopeful. One reason is 2019.
If you’ll remember, youth activism from grassroots groups like Fridays for Future, Sunrise Movement, Extinction Rebellion, 350.org, and Youth Strike for Climate created a groundswell after Earth Day 2019, which culminated in the September 27th Global Climate Strike — a day which came close to rivaling the original Earth Day. Millions marched for climate justice around the world, and real transformational change seemed possible.
Even under the best circumstances, activism can be hard to sustain, and COVID-19 hit in-person activism and community organizing hard. We can’t assign direct causation, but can only imagine the momentum that climate activism might have carried into 2020 if the world wasn’t forced into lockdown.
Reclaiming Earth Day - And Where Do We Go From Here
Today, the pandemic certainly isn’t over, but big picture, COVID is in retreat around the world. This will hopefully open up more opportunities for safe togetherness and climate movement-building.
We all have different things we’re great at, different risk tolerances, and (lots of) different ways we can contribute to moving the world forward on sustainability. And whether we’re activists or not — what we need to recognize is we’re past the point in Earth’s climate emergency where we can rely on announcements and comfortable change.
If we’re going to turn out for Earth Day, let’s really turn out.
Activism is uncomfortable. Protests are often unpopular. But creating social tension is what — throughout history — has led to meaningful change.
Me, sitting for climate in NYC, because we need more of that too
The original LGBTQ+ PRIDE was a riot in the West Village. Contrary to what many think, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights protests he led weren’t publicly popular during his lifetime. First you build cultural awareness, that creates stress in the system, then the status quo fights you, then you persist and win.
The Moyer Map of Social Change
We need to have the same approach with climate change. Let’s have the uncomfortable conversations about topics like nuclear policy, degrowth, food systems, and radical change. Let’s shift people and companies out of their comfort zones. Let’s innovate, try new things, and really move the needle, rather than settling for the incremental.
Above all, we need to send a clear message to our leaders, teammates, and neighbors that we need climate action now, and do it with the same hope, positivity, togetherness, and people power of the original Earth Day.
Let’s get Earth Day — and the 🌎 as a whole — back on track.
Unhappy Earth Day, everyone.
—
This Week in Sustainability is a weekly email from Brightest (and friends) about sustainability and climate strategy. If you’ve enjoyed this piece, please consider forwarding it to a friend or teammate. If you’re reading it for the first time, we hope you enjoyed it enough to consider subscribing. If we can be helpful to you or your organization’s sustainability journey, please be in touch.