{"id":1086,"date":"2005-04-22T18:57:00","date_gmt":"2005-04-22T18:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sustainablog.greenoptions.com\/2005\/04\/22\/dearth-day\/"},"modified":"2005-04-22T18:57:00","modified_gmt":"2005-04-22T18:57:00","slug":"dearth-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/dearth-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Dearth Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
Just couldn’t come up with a better headline than Grist’s own for yesterday’s Muckraker article<\/a>. Amanda Griscom Little takes note of the irony I mentioned below about the House’s passage of it’s energy bill yesterday, and also bemoans the lack of activism planned for today:<\/p>\n Today, on the eve of the 35th anniversary of the first Earth Day, the House of Representatives is voting on, and widely expected to pass, a grossly porkified energy bill that would dole out billions in subsidies to fossil-fuel industries, shortchange alternative-energy and efficiency initiatives, and indemnify makers of the gasoline additive MTBE against liability for groundwater contamination. And this time the bill may actually have a chance of passing in the Senate, perhaps as early as next month, after years of stalemate.<\/p>\n This and other dismal news rolling off Capitol Hill of late would seem good reason to make Earth Day 2005 a revolt, not a celebration. Yet when Muckraker searched high and low for organizers of big, spirited, on-the-ground protests, we found little resembling the kind of mutiny the current political moment would seem to demand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While I think there’s something to be said for making Earth Day more about celebration than protest, I share Griscom Little’s concern over the lack of assertiveness many environmental leaders are showing in the face of the Bush administration’s all-out assault on the environment and any efforts toward sustainable development. Let’s enjoy ourselves today, but never forget that there are batttles to fight.<\/p>\n Technorati tags: Earth Day<\/a>, politics<\/a>, activism<\/a><\/p>\n