Earth Day has lost its edge and, with that, the sense that a different world is possible. Even more than in 1970, what’s needed now is an outpouring that organizes itself—with millions of people and, for good measure, some stinky dead fish in the streets. Full Story »
Posted by Kaizar Campwala
Compelling and well written. Recalls the flavor of the first Earth Day's "edge" and urgency, accurately contrasting it to the relative lack of enthusiasm of 2009's celebration. Framed fully by focused context.
The first celebration of Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, was a raucously exuberant affair. In New York, Fifth Avenue was closed to traffic. People picnicked on the sidewalk; dead fish were dragged through midtown; and Governor Nelson Rockefeller rode a bicycle across Prospect Park. Students in Richmond, Virginia, handed out bags of dirt (to represent the “good earth”); demonstrators in Washington poured oil onto the sidewalk in front of the Interior Department (to protest recent oil spills); and in Bloomington, Indiana, women dressed as witches threw birth-control pills into the crowd (no one was quite sure why).
Just a few weeks ago, researchers reported that Antarctica’s Wilkins Ice Shelf had “begun to collapse because of rapid climate change.” The ice shelf was larger than the state of Connecticut; it now seems destined to disappear. “We’ve come to the Wilkins Ice Shelf to see its final death throes,” a glaciologist with the British Antarctic Survey, who made a farewell trip there, told Reuters.
I have not seen significant reporting on the state of the Wilkins Ice Shelf. It seems more people should know about this, and more papers should report on this!
Outstanding writing! I get such a strong sense of the first Earth Day in 1970 from just a few sentences of accurate, descriptive detailing.