small steps: the earth day myth

Earth Day has always left me with mixed emotions. Embrace the one day that we look at such an all encompassing problem or feel contempt as this one day lets us off the hook for every other day of the year that isn't Earth Day?

Worldchanging (one of my favorite online communities) has a strong article about this. Instead leaving the same message here in weak prose I'll quote the experts...

The biggest problem with Earth Day is that it has become a ritual of sympathy for the idea of environmental sanity. Small steps, we're told, ignoring the fact that most of the steps most frequently promoted (returning your bottles, bringing your own bag, turning off the water while you brush your teeth) are of such minor impact (compared to our ecological footprints) that they are essentially meaningless without larger, systemic action as well. The strategy of recycling as a gateway drug -- get them hooked on it and we can move them on to harder stuff -- has failed miserably. We can do better.

And time is of the essence here. It looks like we have at most four decades to cut our ecological impacts by a factor of ten, and the longer it takes us, the deeper the cuts will need to be and more painful the consequences will prove. It is also entirely possible for us to fail completely, with the best of intentions, by not acting boldly enough, quickly enough. Three decades would probably be a safer target.

One planet, three decades.

ONE PLANET, THREE DECADES

What will our world look like in 2037? You decide?