Another "Earth Day" And....

What?

Where have we come since the first Earth Day? Is care for the planet more grassroots; or more forgotten?

Back in 1970, Earth Day drew huge gatherings all across the country, the kind of gatherings that now happen every weekend -- at the mall.

Oh yeah, there were rallies for Earth Day 2010, sporadic and much smaller in size. The biggest "event" to take place was the explosion of the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that nearly destroyed the Gulf. Today in Fukushima, Japan, citizens will be celebrating Earth Day with a visit limited to 2 hours to gather personal things in the after math of the nuclear power plant explosion over a month ago.

Three years ago, I went to "The Green Festival" here in Chicago and was astounded at the appalling show of carbon emissions-generating consumerism. Booth after booth of organic products (cause everyone know "organic" is green), shipped in from hundreds of miles away in plastic containers hawked their greenness.

Next weekend, I will go to a local park to "revitalize the park" (pick up trash). The event is sponsored by an organization that is fronted by a local store which sells green products. However, when you look at their web site you will see that their specialty is "fair trade" products which they "purchase from over "60 other countries" Other countries means "shipments, means transportation that contributes greatly to the carbon foot print. Still, I feel, having written a novel to save the planet over 16 years ago before "Global Warming Became a buzz word, that I should do something and this is close and convenient and I really don't know what else to do. After all, doing what what can to mitigate carbon emissions and global warming is reliant on daily practices.

So, I will go to mitigate my guilt.

And I will hang out with others who will pontificate about awareness to others who are already aware. And when those who are younger than I (the informed hipsters) will gather at some local caravansary and possibly go off to "hook up" and revel in their "greenness", I will go home and make sure the lights are off and the computer isn't running and the heat is as far down as it should go and not feel a sense of hopelessness.

Awareness is good, but....

What is the point of awareness if it doesn't create change? Where have we come since the first Earth Day? Well, ironically, 1970 is when carbon emissions started to really take off, despite an Oil Crisis and Embargo; according to NASA. This is counter intuitive to what should result from awareness. Also, noted by NASA is that given Earth's 100,000 year cycle we should be entering a cooling phase. Maybe we're not so aware as we think.

Maybe not so ironically, consumer spending increased dramatically until 2008 and tied to this is the increase of disposable plastic packaging creating a huge increase in green house emissions. Personal use of automobiles has increased. I won't make the obvious observation of the impact for that. More homes have air conditioning, which creates a demand on electrical energy production. Again, no obvious observation needed here.

So what is our awareness? Do we not know that our personal lifestyles directly or indirectly attribute to the problems of global warming? Or do we know and just don't care for the inconveniences it may mean?

Will the last person on the planet, please shut off the lights.