Every Day is Earth Day

There is a bumper sticker that the Society of American Foresters sells to it's members: Every Day Is Earth Day for a Forester.  It's slightly defensive, but makes a critical point.  Every day should be Earth Day for each of us.

We are caught in an interesting time for environmental policy and politics.  We have a President and Congress who seem motivated to "do something" on top of the list environmental issues like, well, er, global climate change.  Global warming, as it is called in the popular media, is the darling of politicians.  Primarily because "doing something" can appeal to so many constituencies.  There can be jobs created doing "green technologies," or "green building."  Legislation can be passed requiring regulations to be promulgated, hence creating more governmental jobs monitoring emissions.  And we can still keep our lifestyle as long as we are consuming "green."

But talk has been and continues to be all we seem to do.  Frankly, technological "solutions" often contribute to the problem rather than the solution.  So-called green buildings actually require destruction of a current structure, contributing to the waste stream.  How about green restoration?  And encouraging people to consume as long as it's green?  How about not consuming.  Those reusable bags from China probably do far more damage to the environment than driving to the grocery store!

Here in the Pacific Northwest we have been talking about salmon restoration for decades, and still the numbers decline because of lack of political will and constituency demand.  We tinker at the edges while advocating the use of hydroelectric power, generated by massive dams along the Columbia River, one of the major spawning waterways for salmon.  Google, claiming they are the premier environmental company ("do no evil") recently located a massive server farm, using huge amounts of electricity, near The Dalles, in Oregon, which is directly across from a massive power generating dam.  Google gets cheap power, salmon die.  Go figure.

The same thing is true for the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound, the two premier estuaries in the continent.  Both have been major environmental concerns for decades, yet we continue to overdevelop the adjacent lands (with built green homes, no less) pouring massive amounts of toxic run-off into the waters.  The two estuaries, once filled with lively fisheries and amazingly fresh water, are ecological nightmares.  But we sure love to talk about it.

We have a long long way to go before we can say that every day is Earth Day.  The current economic depression (there, I said it) trumps environmental concerns for most Americans.  The good news is that perhaps as we scratch our heads and examine how we spent our way into this mess, we realize that spending our way out of it might not work.  And that, alone, will go along way for Earth!

As an aside, I want to direct you to the Frontline piece done by Heddrick Smith on the Chesapeake and Puget Sound.  You can find the link to the video by clicking on the title to this post.