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Earth Day began in 1970 when 20 million people across America peacefully demonstrated to save the environment by ending pollution and the wanton destruction of species and ecosystems. Legislators got the message.
Several pieces of landmark legislation to clean up toxic waste, alleviate air pollution, and clean up rivers and streams directly resulted from that Earth Day demonstration. Naturally the big polluters and despoilers immediately started to fight back.
It has become every more clear that the opposition to protecting the Earth is not just about the money. In many cases doing the right thing would actually be cheaper or more profitable for corporations.
The right-wing seems to be actually waging some kind unholy war on the environment, especially the animals and the indigenous people. From their actions, their idea appears to be that if they kill off all the endangered species and indigenous people, there will be nothing left to protect, and they will be able to do as they please.
Even worse, there seems to be a deep hatred for all natural things such as animals, wild plants, and free people. Sarah Palin’s War on Wolves is a good example. Why does she hate wolves so much?
Another example is the Bush administration’s determination to kill as many buffalo as possible in the Yellowstone area, despite scientific evidence that they do not spread disease to cattle, and despite the danger of reducing their numbers to a genetically unviable number.
Some people say that a willful misinterpretation of the Christian Bible is behind the unholy war on the environment and the primal peoples. But they also hate the poor people in America, blaming them for—just about everything. And they hate poor indigenous people who come to the United States to do low-paid labor worst of all.
Clearly they are interpreting their Bible selectively. In fact, Jesus said, “Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.” That sort of rules out a biblical justification for their hatred of the poor, the weak, and the animals, doesn’t it? One would think so.
Most people do not hate the earth, the animals, and the indigenous people. Most folks, when they think about it, do not blame their financial woes on the poor or hate the undocumented aliens who make their lives easier by working hard for a pittance, paying taxes, and doing the jobs no one else wants.
Most people do not want any more animals to become extinct. Most people do want something done to stop global warming, and most are willing to make some sacrifices to secure a safe, healthy future for their children—and for all children.
But not everyone understands the issues. And there is plenty of vicious right-wing propaganda, thoughtfully paid for by right-wingers and broadcast by the corporate media, to mislead them.
People of good will and good sense need to be armed with facts and rallied around the cause of saving the environment—to save our own lives and those of our children—as well as to save the beauty, the grace, and the awe and wonder of exotic animals and plants and indigenous peoples.
So Earth Day matters, because it gets the attention of people who would otherwise not notice the dangerous degradation of our environment and fosters in some of them a need to find out more, maybe to do a little something to help, donate a few bucks, vote for environmental candidates, conserve energy, take a stand.
April 22 is Earth Day 2009. Where will you be? What will you do for the Earth? For the animals? For your children and all the other children of Earth?
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