Celebrate Earth Day By Destroying The Planet!

Is It Possible To Have A Holiday Without Going Shopping?

The first e-mail in my inbox this morning was from a regional pharmacy chain, advertising “Great Earth Day Savings!” That seemed to me to be a little ironic: celebrate by the planet by consuming as much as you can!

It isn’t alone. Just Google “Earth Day Shopping” and you’ll get hundreds of hits. Now, obviously, some purchases might help the planet: trade in your SUV for a Tesla and you are getting somewhere. And consumption brings with it all kinds of good things. But in general, consuming the planet is the opposite of preserving it, and it is one of the worst ways to observe April 22.

So have a Happy Earth Day, and do so without going to the mall. Really. You can do it.

4 Replies to “Celebrate Earth Day By Destroying The Planet!”

Aldyen says:

April 22, 2014 at 3:55 pm

“Trade in” your SUV and get a Tesla? No environmental improvement. The SUV is still on the road.
1. Jonathan Zasloff says:
  
  April 22, 2014 at 4:07 pm
  
  Excellent point! “Melt down” your SUV? Although if you buy filtration theory, the SUV replaces something else, which is probably (although not necessarily) older and thus more polluting. Of course, the car older than the SUV could be a small car, which means more emissions. I stand corrected.
  1. CJ says:
    
    April 23, 2014 at 6:38 am
    
    How would a new Tesla help the planet? Spending turns the economy, which damages the planet. The SUV’s embodied/embedded impact has already happened. “Melt down” only avoids a fraction of the SUV’s life-cycle impact. If it leads to all new damage, indeed a *commitment* to the new car’s full life-cycle of damage, then “melt down” is not so good for Earth.
    1. bqrq says:
      
      April 23, 2014 at 4:17 pm
      
      I love mother earth so much that I celebrated earth day by purchasing a six-pack of bottled water and a shopping bag made out of recycled plastic. I poured the bottled water into a nearby stream to provide fresh water inflows to our local estuary. As you know, fresh water inflows are critical to marine ecosystems so I felt good. Next I recycled the empty water bottles by refilling them with fresh tap water. By the end of earth day I was so tired that I took a nap on my renewable sofa. Thank you Gaia.

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