Earth Day 40

If the climate were a bank they would have saved it by now. - Hugo Chavez

Earth Day turns forty this year. There's a mass of plastic goo in the Pacific the size of Texas and another one forming in the Atlantic. Glaciers are melting and ocean levels are rising along with annual average temperatures. Bangladesh will likely be underwater by 2050.

We're running out of landfill space and toxins accumulate in our environment. Municipal water supplies are showing signs of pharmaceutical and chemical contamination while bottled water has no standards and contributes significantly to the ever growing bulk of plastic in the environment. Recyclable is far more common than recycled.

Algae blooms occur with greater frequency and the oceans are perilously over-fished. The fish we eat is contaminated with mercury and other toxins to the point that our ears are ringing. Genetically modified crops are surreptitiously finding their way into the grocery stores while milk without BGH must be labeled.

Millions of new drivers and their cars are added to the planet every year. Rivers dry up before they reach the ocean. Desertification and deforestation continue at such rates that progress is measured in slowing down the rate of growth. Politicians living in climate controlled bubbles question the science of climate change. People go to tea parties and demand government get out of their lives while their children and grandchildren sustain genetic damage from environmental toxins that proliferate from our deregulated free markets.

The economy is in deep trouble and our infrastructure is crumbling. Green infrastructure building appears to be the obvious solution yet nothing is happening as we constantly hear that it is too expensive to go green. Too expensive to the old economy, the petrol based economy of fossil fuel consumption and continual growth. There's no money to go green, its all being spent on oil and the creation of financial "instruments" on Wall Street.

For half the money spent on the war in Iraq ($2 trillion according to Joseph Stiglitz), for one trillion dollars, we could have put $10,000 worth of solar panels on 100 million living units in the United States. What would that have done for the economy and the culture of the country as compared to a protracted and pointless war?

And right now, as I write this, an exploratory oil platform off the coast of Louisiana that blew up yesterday, just toppled and fell into the ocean.

Happy Earth Day.