Earth Day finds itself in a political pickle

Earth Day finds itself in a political pickle


As Earth Day reaches middle age — it turns 40 today — will it get all the respect it’s grown to expect?

From those who love it? Always. It’s a chance for environmentalists, young and old, to look back on all that has been accomplished, but address the continuing challenges.

But in some circles, which may have broadened in recent years, not so much.

The environmental celebration that once seemed more innocently focused on planting trees, on DDT and on weeping Indians is now bound up with politics and climate change — and amid a toxic cloud of polarization and name calling.

As a result, some green movement momentum has been lost, Earth Day supporters agree. But they welcome the debates the day brings.

Critics long have accused its organizers of being anti-business or anti-growth. The Washington Post last year characterized the day a “global guilt-fest.”

Likely it will be called worse today from the right of the political spectrum, where the energetic tea party crowd resides.

A recent New York Times poll that reached more than 800 tea party supporters found that 51 percent see no serious impact from climate change, twice the rate of other Americans, and that 15 percent of supporters don’t believe climate change even exists, three times the rate of the rest of the population.

Other surveys suggest the larger public mood — recession-wracked and fearing the federal deficit — is shifting:

•More people place a greater priority on the economy than the environment.

•Nearly half believe global warming is exaggerated in the media.

•The numbers of those rejecting the theory that climate change is caused by human activity are growing.

More than two years ago, when Kristin Riott joined Kansas City’s Bridging the Gap group, “the phones were ringing off the hook with everybody wanting to go green.”

Today the phones still ring, Riott said, “but the intensity of concern about the environment has definitely been knocked off the radar screen by what’s been happening with the economy.”

Others say many of the pollution problems of 40 years ago have been addressed, so now media, scientists and activist groups must hype climate change just to remain relevant.

“Global warming alarmists have overstated their case in the media,” said James M. Taylor at the Heartland Institute, a nonprofit that promotes free-market solutions to environmental and other problems.

“Now the public doesn’t believe much of what they’re saying.”

Environmentalists retort that while the easily seen problems were cleaned up, the job is not done on things that the naked eye can’t detect.

That’s politically difficult, said Russell Train, chief environmental adviser in 1970 to President Richard Nixon.

“Back in the ’70s, people felt the threat of environmental mistakes and misbehavior,” he told The Associated Press.

“There was a real threat to your health, and people knew that. Today, people will accept that as a general principle, but don’t feel any immediate threat from climate change or indirect source pollution from farmers.”

Environmentalists express optimism about how “green” has taken deeper root and how Earth Day fires up the faithful.

A rally to promote federal climate legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is expected to draw people from across the nation Sunday to the National Mall in Washington.

The House of Representatives last year passed a climate bill, and a bipartisan Senate plan may be unveiled Monday.

“I think there is a general sense of optimism, not pessimism,” said Nate Byer, campaign director for Earth Day 2010 at the Earth Day Network in Washington.

“Climate change is the greatest threat of our time but it also presents us with opportunities … A (good) climate bill is a jobs bill and a national security bill, and it will allow a better future for our children.”

•••

When the first Earth Day happened in 1970, it was called a “teach-in” and reflected the activism of young people and organizational lessons learned from Vietnam War protests.

The focus was pollution and overpopulation. It was also a time of general agreement between government leaders and the public that something had to be done — the Cuyahoga River in Ohio, after all, was notoriously catching fire.

Within only a few years the Environmental Protection Agency had been created and a slew of laws were on the books, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act, the Water Pollution Control Act, the Solid Waste Disposal Act and the Pesticides Control Act.

But a major concern of the 1970s that remains today is our dependence on fossil fuels, which is at the core of the climate-change debate.

Noting the great potential for energy efficiencies, Riott said, “Clearly we are going to go on using oil and coal for some time.

“But we can certainly get much cleaner than we are now.”

Observers say the concept of being “green” has taken root in the generations of young people since the first Earth Day.

“I would say our kids are very aware,” said Kim Lilley, English teacher at Blue Valley West High School.

•••

At the University of Missouri, where a large Sunday event is planned, Jan Weaver, director of undergraduate environmental studies, said students generally understand that their behavior can have an impact on the environment.

“But if you ask them specifics, they’d probably be as hard-pressed to give you details as the population was maybe 40 years ago,” Weaver said.

The level of optimism remains about the same despite the specter of climate change as “a game changer” that will worsen global pollution and food shortages, she said.

“But I also think that we have a lot of the technology that we need and a lot of the tools that we need to make change,” she said. “It’s going to be a rough patch for the next 10 years, but the evidence will become more compelling, and people will recognize the opportunities of moving from fossil fuels to solar and wind and biomass and hydrogen fuel cells.”

Riott said it is unfortunate that political discourse has become so divisive, because if anything could unite us, it should be the destabilization of our habitat. She described herself as optimistic but realistic.

“Change on a scale we’re talking about doesn’t happen in a five-year period but happens over decades,” she said, citing labor law, women’s suffrage and slavery’s abolition.

Forty years of Earth Days have created a national awareness, she said.

“People in the 1930s didn’t know about climate change, even though scientists were aware. It wasn’t even discussed. Now we’re discussing it.”

SHORT STEPS
Bridging the Gap asks Kansas Citians to do five simple things to help the environment.

•Give up bottled water.

•Use only cold water in the washing machine.

•Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs.

•Set the thermostat to 68 or below in winter and 78 or above in summer.

•Drive less.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/21/1894319/earth-day-finds-itself-in-a-political.html#ixzz0lnkCX04x


Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/21/1894319/earth-day-finds-itself-in-a-political.html#ixzz0lnjvSc8O