Tompkins Weekly    3-27-24

By Dan Antonioli and bethany ojalehto mays

On April 22, 1970, one of the world’s most significant environmental movements, Earth Day, was launched. Earth Day set in motion an ecological focus to highlight the vulnerability of Planet Earth in the face of Anthropocene ecocide.

In 1970, social protests were raging. The “ecology movement” was born out of the radicalism of the anti-war movement and a host of other social movements that were inextricably linked to the organizing of the 60s. Earth Day thus had punch, drama, and made bold statements.

At the time, there was no Environmental Protection Agency, no penalties for corporate polluters, and little impetus to address environmental problems.

There were many contributions to the environmental movement in the 60s that led to the formation of Earth Day. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring shocked the nation into realizing that DDT was not only bad for human health but created a catastrophic chain reaction as it traveled up the food chain, killing millions of aquatic animals and the birds that fed on them. Silent Spring led to the banning of DDT, but what about all of the other pesticides? What about corporate polluters? The decimation of forests, declining fish populations, and suburban sprawl into wilderness areas? Not to mention nuclear fallout.

As public awareness grew about the negative impacts of pesticides and pollution, it soon became apparent that there were no environmental protections. Hence the birth of Earth Day.

Throughout the 70s and early 80s Earth Day was a bold statement about ecological crises. Dramatic statements were made in the form of protest, legislative demands, and iconic images of people smashing cars with sledge hammers to state that oil, gas, and transportation were choking the planet.

But with time, many Earth Day events lost momentum and were replaced with soft declarations about the need to save “Mother Earth.” Earth Day eventually morphed into an apolitical, easygoing annual event that hardly drew attention to the catastrophic state of the world.

With global warming reaching all-time highs, and a dangerous political movement that wants to turn back environmental protections and gut the EPA of its regulatory power, a new youth movement is emerging to reclaim Earth Day and restore its heart, soul, and fiery spirit.

It could not be more desperately needed.

Young people today face a future that is terrifying: not because it has to be, but because their elders, leaders, teachers, politicians, and parents have not yet mustered the political will to protect them and all of life on Earth.

For all the environmental regulations that courageous environmental activists secured decades ago, the root causes of climate breakdown have gone spectacularly unaddressed. Global carbon emissions continue to rise, while governments and institutions repeatedly fail to deliver on their weak, inadequate pledges. Countless species are being lost forever, and living ecosystems continue to be lost to unsustainable human activity.

International climate goals  are vanishing before our eyes. Our towns, universities, and governments are knowingly churning out emissions for a “catastrophic” rise in temperatures by 2100. Ithaca, which aims to be a global climate leader with its Green New Deal, just boasted of expanding its airport with the backward goal of increasing flights in and out of Tompkins County.

While 70% of American adults said climate change is an important concern in 2021, only 10% volunteered for a climate-related activity or contacted an elected official about it in the previous year. Many of us continue to behave as if climate breakdown were not our personal and collective responsibility to address right now.

Philosopher Henry Shue issues a wake-up call in his 2022 book The Pivotal Generation:

“We can be the greatest generation for the climate struggle or the miserably self-preoccupied and easily manipulated ones who failed to rise to the occasion and whom future generations will recall, if at all, with contempt…Those of us alive now are the pivotal generation in human history for the fate of our planet’s livability.” (p. 2)

We need a climate movement that is different and stronger. Youth have every right to be furious, and their climate anxiety is well-founded. Climate anxiety is not a problem, it’s an adaptation. Anxiety tells you to do something. The time is now for citizen engagement.

Reclaim Earth Day is a practical way to be engaged. Make this a radical commitment, and show the youth you are ready to stand up for their future on April 22.

Together we can Reclaim Earth Day!

To Learn More: visit Tompkins County Reclaim Earth Day (www.cornellonfire.org/reclaim-earth-day). Feel free to contact the event coordinators: bethany.o.mays@gmail.com; clairenickell12@gmail.com, or nora.brown@mothersoutfront.org.

Dan Antonioli is on the board of Sustainable Finger Lakes. bethany ojalehto mays is a former academic who left the academy to practice Indigenous environmentalism more directly.

Signs of Sustainability is organized by Sustainable Finger Lakes.