Tokenism Day

Yay, it’s Earth Day! Time to talk about Saving the Planet. Let’s have a school assembly or watch a TV programme about recycling. Let’s virtuously switch off an electric light for an hour and congratulate ourselves on our moment of good intent. There, that’s done. What, the kids didn’t understand that bit about plastic pollution? Never mind; we’ll talk about it again next Earth Day, next year.

Earth Day irritates me more and more every year.
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We need to stop buying/binning plastics; we need to reverse environmental degradation, avoid sending animals into extinction. We need to slow down our burning of carbons and get back into harmony with the biology of the planet. We need to change our habits as individuals, and restructure industry and culture so as to reduce human impacts on this biosphere that is keeping us alive. Does Earth Day really do any of this? I don’t think it does. 

But it’s better than nothing, the argument goes.
​I don’t agree. 

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