San Francisco Earth Day Action Parade, April 19th, 2014
Carl Sagan asked, “Who speaks for earth?” This Earth Day, who speaks? Who raises their voice for earth? On a sunny Saturday, in conjunction with the San Francisco Earth Day Festival, a thousand feet marched up Market Street for an
“Earth Day Action Parade” for environmental and climate justice. It was a call to action for the earth.
350.org and 350 Bay Area groups, Sunflower Alliance, Sierra Club, CREDO Action and other groups sponsored the Action Parade. 500 faces told 500 stories. 500 voices spoke for the earth. Earth Day in San Francisco, once again, had citizens in action, raising their voices for the earth. Mr. Bill McKibben added his voice. It was a start.
Thirty four years ago Carl Sagan said in the last episode of his epic Cosmos series:
Had we destroyed our home? What had we done to the earth? There had been many ways for life to perish at our hands; we had poisoned the air and water; we had ravaged the land. Perhaps we had changed the climate…
From an extraterrestrial perspective, our global civilization is clearly on the edge of failure and the most important task it faces is preserving the lives and well-being of its citizens and the future habitability of the planet…
In 1980, perhaps the climate crisis wasn’t as well known. But Dr. Sagan understood its significance. I wonder, do we? We have a day called Earth Day, but who today is speaking for earth?
In a metropolitan area of 7 million, 500 took time for environmental and climate justice. Was it enough? It was 500 greater than zero. I’d contend that we, the human species, need 100 times that number to alter our current fateful, fatal path. It was a start.
After the Action Parade, the Rally heard from local activist Stephanie Hervey, noted climate author Mark Hertsgaard, and environmental scientist Melanie Harrison. Bill McKibben addressed the crowd with rousing words. He said,
Bill McKibben on Stage at the Earth Day Action Rally at the San Francisco Festival
“You tell your mayor, like we tell President Obama everyday: We’re tired of people offering up good words about climate change. We know they don’t like global warming, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah… We want them actually to do what is important and easy and necessary for them to do and to do it now, now. That is the thing.”
It’s the actual action, the doing, to get actual results that matters. Many say they “get” climate change. Fewer “get it” enough to be doing it. We, as a society, only “get it” a little bit right now. 60% of Americans
believe climate change is or will affect them, but only 25% “worry a great deal about it”, compared to 60% on the economy. It’s at the bottom of Pew Research Center’s poll of 20 possible national priorities. That’s a big gap. 35% of us get it, but not enough to “worry about it”.
I love the Earth Day Festivals. Each has their unique and varied character ranging from small booths for non-profits in the park, to DIY greening activities, to exhibits of green products, to the larger cultural expressions, including songs and dances for the earth. The
EDSF Festival was a great mash up of all things green, with the exhibitors and activists all pitching their wares to the generally sympathetic and dynamic crowd. It all serves a greater purpose and keep us oriented to our place and the life that shares it with us.
Aside from whatever questions some might have about certain sponsors or products constituting “greenwashing”, an important question arises in the face of the climate crisis: Is this our day for the earth? Our call for the earth? Is this our answer for the climate crisis?
Many of the exhibits and causes are necessary steps, to live sustainably with a small or zero carbon pollution footprint, but they are not sufficient alone to avert disaster. Our emissions inventory is based on entrenched fossil fuel infrastructure. This we know. This, apparently, we know only shallowly. This, some 35% of us know, and don’t care enough to do anything significant about it.
We get that real policy action requires public pressure and outrage to induce politicians to “do it.” Civil rights became the law of the land after 100,000’s marched in city’s streets. The challenge to generate a similar level of public outrage, for something so diffuse and abstract as climate change, is matched only by the cost of not succeeding.
The earth itself, I would say, has a voice – one so quiet, it’s more of a feeling to be felt than a sound to be heard. Those informed by science get it. Those informed by a connection to the land, the plants and animals, they get it. And those whose common sense has heard and seen the weather go crazier than usual – these people get it.
The origins of Earth Day were in education and activism. Senator Gaylord Nelson, the originator of Earth Day, imagined that:
“If we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force the issue onto the national political agenda.
Approximately 7,000 people gather on Independence Mall in Philadelphia on the first Earth Day--April 22, 1970
The energy that was generated by the 20 million in the streets for the very first Earth Day did force the issue into the nation political agenda. It protected the world that we now enjoy. Senator Nelson did not know he would have the climate crisis in his world, but he saw the oil spill devastation on the coast of Santa Barbara, and understood the end result of not protecting the earth. He and 20,000,000 others got it -- truly got it, as demonstrated by their demonstrating.
To the Earth Day Network’s credit, they are headed for a billion commitments to DO something green. I would point out that there is a difference of significance between things they suggest, like educating friends and family on global warming or buying green products. Magnitudes of difference.
Carl Sagan concluded,
These are some of the things that hydrogen atoms do given fifteen billion years of cosmic evolution. It has the sound of epic myth, but it is simply a description of the evolution of the cosmos as revealed by science in our time. And we, we who embody the local eyes and ears and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos, we have begun at least to wonder about our origins – star stuff contemplating the stars, organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms, contemplating the evolution of nature, tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness here on the planet earth, and perhaps throughout the cosmos.
Our loyalties are to the species and to the planet. We speak for earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves but also to that cosmos ancient and vast from which we spring!
Let me conclude by calling for each of us to speak for earth not just with words of concern and wishes, but with loud voices of outrage and demands for real action. For today’s and future Earth Days, let’s include our feet in the street. Let’s mobilize those that truly get it, to draw attention to the significance of the climate crisis. Give attention to those 1000’s, 10,000’s and hopefully soon, 100,000’s of voices. These magnitudes reflect the scope of the devastating risks, the intensity of the political conflict and the epochal choice of the civilization’s path to prosperity or to Thermogeddon.
We spoke for earth for Earth Day on San Francisco with our feet and our hearts. Let’s all inject citizen outrage and action back into Earth Day. Do you speak for earth?