Earth Day has ‘lost its way.’ Here’s how to get back to its roots.
Earth Day’s message has been diluted and co-opted by polluting industries, who use it to tout their efforts to curb emissions. We can take back the narrative.
Philadelphia played a major role in the first Earth Day 53 years ago. At first glance, it would appear that Earth Day is still going strong, with annual celebrations and events committed to protecting Americans from the devastating impacts of pollution in our air, water, and soil. But look a little closer, and it’s clear that the environmental activism and political advocacy that made that first Earth Day so revolutionary have shifted.
If we want Earth Day to matter in 2023, we need to once again use it to enact political change on environmental issues. That starts with demanding more from our elected officials.
For over 40 years, I’ve been fighting to conserve, maintain, and improve the environment with the Clean Air Council, Philadelphia’s oldest environmental nonprofit. Although there has been progress in many areas, I’m admittedly more discouraged today than I was four decades ago.
On so many fronts, our environmental movement has lost its way, and there’s no better example of that shift than what Earth Day has become.
Earth Day once kick-started a focus on the environment that drove significant activism around curbing pollution. It was a call to action that carried around the world.
Politicians took notice. Republicans and Democrats worked together to address environmental degradation nationwide. On the heels of the first Earth Day, the Environmental Protection Agency was established and charged with the critical mission of decreasing pollution that was killing Americans. Congress adopted some of America’s most important public health laws — most notably the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Industries impacted by these protections fought every proposed safeguard tooth and nail. Yet Americans demanded change, and politicians stood up to industry. The American economy thrived while slashing pollution and reducing health-care costs.
Over the years, these political victories stemming from Earth Day have lost their place in the narrative. Earth Day’s message has been diluted and co-opted by polluting industries, who use it to tout their efforts to curb emissions.
If we are to get our nation’s environmental priorities back on track, we must acknowledge two facts that the modern story of Earth Day intentionally overlooks.
The first is that pollution at a state, regional, or national scale cannot be solved through individual action alone. Yes, we as consumers make choices every day that impact the environment. We can choose to recycle. We can choose to drive less. We can choose to cut our carbon footprint. But reducing pollution in ways that truly protect public health and address climate change cannot come from individual behaviors alone.
It is the obligation of elected leaders and regulators at all levels of government and of the polluting industries themselves. We will never adequately address issues such as climate change, train derailments that release toxic substances, and the devastating impacts of plastics by putting the responsibility on hundreds of millions of consumers to voluntarily make the right choice. It is the obligation of our government to enact binding policies to solve major social issues.
The second fallacy of the modern Earth Day movement is how polluting industries have “embraced” it. (Consider, for example, this video from ExxonMobil on Earth Day 2021, which profiles employees who are working to cut emissions worldwide.) The very companies driving our climate crisis will celebrate Earth Day and sponsor activities, while at the same time spending millions lobbying against commonsense regulations that would help reduce their emissions. Many of our elected officials are no better. They’ll pose for the photo op this Saturday, then turn around and block basic legislation that would limit pollution or facilitate a transition to more eco-friendly products.
The world’s leading climate scientists continually tell us we are failing to adequately address the impending climate disaster. As a result, around the world, we’re spending trillions of dollars making our infrastructure more resilient to the superstorms and droughts caused by climate change.
We no longer have elected officials who listen to their constituents and are willing to make the tough decisions needed to maintain a sustainable way of life on this planet. It is far easier to cave in to polluting industries (and sizable donors). There is no better example of this than in Harrisburg, where too many politicians refuse to limit methane pollution — an extremely potent greenhouse gas — from oil and gas operations in Pennsylvania. They mock the idea of a green economy while demanding money from the federal government to help constituents whose lives are being upended by climate change when the time comes. They ignore the demands of younger voters who worry about their future. They’ll spend billions of taxpayer dollars to prop up petrochemical companies and the gas industry while refusing to support a widely popular transition to resilient, affordable clean energy.
We don’t need photo ops or proclamations from our politicians. We need leadership that moves the needle on combating climate change and other toxic pollution. It’s what we’ve been demanding for more than half a century. It’s what Earth Day has really always been about.
Joseph O. Minott is the executive director and chief counsel at the Clean Air Council.