Earth Day: Good, Bad or Indifferent

I'm not a big fan of Earth Day. I want to be a good global citizen and do what I can to minimize the environmental impact of my time here on this earth, and I want everyone else to, too. Even with the best of intentions, however, it's not always clear how to do that, and most of the Earth Day "How You Can Help Save The Planet" articles I'm seeing today aren't helping much. For example, an article on the Huffington Post, titled "Seven Things You Can Do For Earth Day That Actually Matter," includes such gems as "Get rid of your car" and "Don't have a baby."

I would love to get rid of my car and live like a European, but as a resident of suburban Chicago it's just not possible. We don't have the public transportation infrastructure for that kind of lifestyle, and neither does any other city in America, which makes the suggestion in the Huff Post article not only unrealistic but really stupid. As for not having a baby, well, okay, I wasn't planning to, but a lot of other people are, not to mention all the people that already have kids, and I have to ask, do the geniuses at HuffPost really believe that telling people not to have kids is the way to save the planet?

I remember the first Earth Day, in 1970, when I was in junior high school and most of the kids in my school walked home instead of taking the bus. The irony was that the buses still ran their routes that day, and every other day since then, making our gesture of walking home symbolic but ultimately meaningless. 40 years later, as far as I can tell, most of the Earth Day activities are equally superficial, which makes Earth Day itself practically meaningless. If publishing articles with insultingly stupid ideas like telling people not to have kids is what now passes for "celebrating" Earth Day, it's probably time for Earth Day to go away.