Earth Day

I didn't realize it was Earth Day until I was reading a Facebook post encouraging everyone to take public transportation, drink tap water, and pick up trash around their neighborhood. When I was at Virginia Tech, we used to have a large celebration on the Drillfield with the cycling club tuning up bikes for free and groups selling Earth Day t-shirts made of organic cotton. In Berkeley, I didn't see any celebrations, but I would be incredibly surprised if nothing was going on. Maybe I need to get out of lab more often...

I didn't know much about the history of Earth Day until I read the Wikipedia article detailing its inception. Earth Day was founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson, who was also an environmental activist and is always held on April 22nd. Senator Nelson came up with the idea after the major oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969, which ranks 3rd after Deepwater Horizon and Exxon Valdez spills. Washington was not responding effectively to the situation, and the disaster significantly affected wildlife. So Senator Nelson decided to set up a "teach-in" modeled after those that focused on the war in Vietnam. This first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, marked the beginning of the environmental movement. And now you know how Earth Day began.

When I typed in "Earth Day" and "China" into Google, I came across a blog on the San Francisco Chronicle website discussing this very subject. China is facing a major environmental crisis as its waters and air become more and more polluted each day. Its lax regulations allow multinational (and Chinese) companies to escape the laws that protect the environment from toxic dumping. While China is trying to address environmental concerns with its announcement of a 40-year plan, its growing economy and population will make serious action difficult. They cannot continue with "business as usual," to burn the short supply of coal for electricity or refuse to beef up environmental and safety regulations. Otherwise, they can look forward to more disasters like the toxic spills in the Songhua River and thicker air pollution.

And while our environmental standards are higher than China's at the moment, we are certainly not saints when it comes to protecting our environment. We need to accept that our giant cars and inefficient coal plants are affecting the climate. Earth Day reminds us to take a look at our footprint - and do something about it.