NeoDeath90 said:
Sat on my butt and watched the earth go to hell. Seriously, it's a proven fact that once the sun becomes a red giant, the earth will be one of the planest swallowed up by it. So if the world is slowly going to hell, what's the point in saving it?
And if it's for our children then they have nothing to worry about. It's gonna take a lot more than we as a species can ever do to truly negatively effect this planet.
Wow, what an impressive body of reactions this community has! Isn't cynicism cool!
Except that the overwhelming majority of science contradicts the statement that humans can't "negatively effect(sic) this planet". You have to avoid many years and literally tons of research to believe that.
And re: "So if the world is slowly going to hell, what's the point in saving it?" Because maybe the next 3-5 billion years until then will be more pleasant if we take care better care of food, natural environment, water and habitat resources now?
Our species as we know it has only been around for about 100K years, and what we're talking about is responsible personal, national and global ethics and systems for maintaining a healthy environment.
Go to any industrial city in a country without even moderate emissions controls and see how it feels breathing the air there for a few hours. Beijing (where many people wear masks outdoors) closed down manufacturing plants months ago to try to clear the air in time for the summer Olympics. During visits atheletes were becoming ill doing normal workouts.
The impacts that industrial, farming and waste management practices have right now on our personal lives are massively documented and quite well understood, and is a large reason why so many large corporations and governments are now scrambling to get on the enviornmental consciousness train--not because it's fashionable but because the preponderance of global understanding has shifted in a big way.
"Half-wit, hippy and pretentious" me for actually caring enough about our future as a species and my children's lives to think that it's actually a good idea to *really learn about* what we do to impact the earth positively, and what we can do individually, locally and with our votes.
Nmil-ek said:
Nothing I already walk everywhere, turn off all my lights unless im in a room, unplug everything im not using and recycle. I do plenty on a day to day basis so a superficial day like this means nothing to me.
Very nice daily consciousness there, but Earth Day is more about awareness than direct impact, as a few others have noted. It's just marketing, and marketing helps.
I'm still trying to remember to look for ways to reduce electricity consumption and have my children be more conscious of saving money and resources.
Cynicism on issues like this sound like people saying "I know I'm smart, but I don't know much about this, and things I don't know much about I'll bash, because then I won't feel a need to educate myself."
It might be useful and more intellectually honest to say instead "I don't know much about this; maybe I'll make time to learn someday," or to say nothing. A closed mouth gathers no foot.
/-rant
