It’s Earth Day. We’ve come so far since 1970. We’ve stopped leaving the water running while we brush our teeth. We recycle, and we use market bags at the grocery store. But there’s one more thing we can do to offset the still rampant and government supported use of fossil fuels. Take a selfie appreciating nature. Upload to all your social media accounts, using the hashtag #NASA. Maybe you can even include some wildlife in your pic. That will save the planet!
Sorry for the rant on a Monday morning, DeadSplinters. I don’t mean to suggest that we shouldn’t be doing all we can. Bitch about the lack of progress on climate change, tell me what if anything you’re doing to celebrate Earth Day. And offer any hopeful news you can find.
I’m in, here’s mine!
I hope the bear cub people get a pic like that next time.
When I saw that video I was so hoping that mom was close by!
That was my first thought too but then realized the mother bear would gave been killed. I’m angry that they aren’t being charged.
In 1970, I was in elementary school, I was very young, and we had this very young teacher who was hopelessly glamourous. A semi-bouffant-ish wig. Mascara. Skirts as short as she could get away with. I remember vividly that one day she was at the front of the classroom. She instructed us to watch her as she went to the back of the classroom. When she got there she said to us, “Every woman wants to be the center of attention.” Then she keyed up a record player and she led us in a dance party to the Partridge Family’s “I Think I Love You.”
I can’t believe I remember all this so vividly 54 years later. Anyway, she was totally into the first Earth Day and it seemed like we talked about nothing else in the weeks to the runup. Nixon, of course, was the President, so along with founding the EPA…I will stop defending Richard Nixon. At least in this venue. We were sent out to proselytize our parents about Earth Day-related activities and habits we could change and, I think it was that same year, there was a big anti-smoking push and we were supposed to pester our parents until they gave it up just to shut us up. My parents’ reaction was not as intended. My father said, “The non-smoking section is the non-heated garage. Here’s your sleeping bag.”
He was a soulless paranoid asshole, but Nixon did progressive shit that would cause Obama to have a heart attack just to speak the words. He founded the EPA and pushed for solar and wind power! He thought stronger gun laws were needed!! He instituted price controls!!!!!! (Biden just saying the words “price controls” would be the top story on Fox News for like 4 weeks.)
He was a bad guy and he did most of those things to score political points, but still, it’s kind of remarkable that he did shit that’s way to the left now of the supposedly half-commie Democratic Party.
He was a complicated man, but no one understood him but his woman
(Dick Nixon!)
People still talk about the wage and price controls as the era when the US stopped being a capitalist country. Taking the dollar off the gold standard (long overdue, and a huge relief to our western allies who were being crippled by it) and jetting off to Peking/Beijing. “Only Nixon could go to China.” There’s a great vignette I read where it’s the the era of the Vietnam War, (Sidebar: Nixon stopped the compulsory draft in 1973 and converted us over to an all-voluntary military, something that St. Jimmy of Plains partially rolled back when he made all men between 18 and 24 register for Selective Service. Thankfully when I was 18 to 24 Reagan was in office and no general mobilization was necessary; the USSR and their satellites collapsed for different reasons that should have been foreseen.)
Anyway, the Mall is occupied by young people who wouldn’t be drafted for the Vietnam War anyway because they were all upscale white college students or otherwise connected, and in the middle of the night Nixon, in his suit and signature wingtips, waded in, around the Lincoln Memorial I think, and chatted with them. And I think Nixon took something away from this. But then of course he had Henry Kissinger who, well, I recommend Christopher Hitchens’s book on the subject.
He also did a great deal to address food insecurity in this country expanding the food stamp program and I think approved WIC. Although I’m not positive about that.
You’re right to rant, because it’s not our fault, and there’s a lot of “you need to do your part!” framing that shifts the blame to us when we aren’t the ones who got us to this point or can effect any positive change on a wide scale. I’ll fully accept it’s my fault if I can have a seat on Exxon Mobil’s board, or as a joint chief of staff in the military, or be an agribusiness CEO.
True, I never lied about the dangers of too much CO2 or said that forever chemicals are good for you.
I can understand the rage the raiders feel about the vault dwellers… Yeah been watching Fallout.
I absolutely don’t mind doing my bit. But we know realistically what you and I do cannot have any real impact without the full cooperation of politicians and corporations. Which are more or less the same thing anymore. And I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
BUT I USE PAPER STRAWS!!!!!!!!
We compost. Does that count? I think we have a pretty small carbon footprint except for the sheep farts and wood pellet stove when it’s really really cold.
You’re doing more than Jeff Bezos and Taylor Swift put together.
I don’t want to think about Jeff Bezos and Taylor Swift put together, thank you.
😂
The only thing I do that I think makes any sort of difference is gardening. And I don’t mean the veggie gardening – I mean the native plant gardening where I had removed lawn for shrubs and flowers to support pollinators, insects, and birds.
I’ve done 3 small garden beds of natives and have the back third of my lawn with native plants. This summer I’m slowly demolishing the front lawn to be natives instead of useless grass.
I’m not anti-lawn for everyone, but for me it’s useless.
Also to add – the firefly show in the back yard is off the charts now. Like that alone is a reminder of non-lawn yards being impactful. Also the adorable bumblebees are obsessed with my coneflowers each year and I can count dozens of them any given time out getting lil pollen snackies during bloom season.
Have you gotten a pollinator garden  or native lawn sign? I’m sure there are local groups near you that offer them. Or you can get one from the Xerces Society or Pollinator Partnership. I think they look nice and they let people know what you’re doing. And hopefully encourage them to do the same.
That’s more than a lot of people do. And is probably more helpful than the recycling we all do. Because I’m not convinced it doesn’t end up in a landfill anyway.
I know I think more about the recycle part of reduce, reuse, recycle than I do the reduce part.