As times get harder, the continuing cooperation and sense of unity across the country to fight and contain COVID-19 is impressive. It inspires additional thinking. We’ve seemed such a divided nation recently; the power of working together during crisis restores faith in our ability to muster collective action.
Just in time. National unity had profound and lasting impact fifty years ago; April 22nd is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. By modern standards, one might roll the eyes as to why Earth Day would be considered noticeably significant. Recent Earth Days haven’t come close to the original event.
In April 1970, one in ten Americans united in nationwide demonstration calling for an end to pollution of the air, water and landscape. With a full ten percent of the entire population flooding the streets, woodlands and seashores with an organized voice, the environmental movement was launched.
Following the demonstration, the Clean Air Act passed Congress with a single dissenting vote and became law. Other swift outcomes included the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act, followed by establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
These measures created unity to ban DDT as a harmful chemical, remove lead from gasoline, and the pass the Toxic Substance Control Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The combination of cohesive will, science and love of country transformed modern America more fundamentally than most movements ever dream to achieve.
So what does that have to do with today?
The current crisis is certainly making many reassess what’s important. Our inherent interdependence and importance of unity is tremendously evident. The inability to go out makes people realize how many of their possessions are superfluous. Not only do we not need so much stuff, it’s not stuff that’s important to us.
Juliet Schor, a sociology professor at Boston College and the author of True Wealth, has studied the relationship between consumption of goods and societal change for a long time. She points out it’s the production of goods that leads consumption. While consumers buy, they’re not necessarily the leaders in this equation.
Taking a historic look, the last 70 years is called the Great Acceleration. The post WWII era saw tremendous production growth, resulting in buying. Happiness abounds – or not. Per Schor, the impact of the of the Great Acceleration “…has been monumentally devastating for the planet.”
Sociologically speaking we are now in what’s referred to as the Anthropocene, an era where humans are actually changing the basic chemistry of the planet.
So, if economic growth takes natural capital and human capital, and neither is infinite, there’s a different discussion in play for Earth Day 2020. Understanding and interest in this is mounting.
Shahzeen Attari is an Associate Professor at of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University and an Andrew Carnegie Fellow working on resource use and climate change. She believes people collectively are far more powerful than they realize. She finds inspiration in the growing activism and political interest of young people, and the sophistication of their global reach through efforts like the Sunrise Movement at www.sunrisemovement.org.
What’s often urged, is taking a look at how much you’ve commodified your life. A lot of that seems to be happening right now.
Schor reminds us, “It’s just a mere 100 companies that account for 70 percent of all the carbon pollution in the world”, and “…10 percent of the world’s population is responsible for about 50 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.” This is doable if there’s a will. Take a look at www.earthday.org. While having kids draw pictures of trees or planting a garden is good, it’s confection compared to the possibilities.