Earth 101

Dueling Earth Days
By Lou Hawthorne

The Left is frequently faulted — even within ranks — for a lack of discipline, both in messaging and implementation. The Right, to their credit, seem to have a deep, almost innate awareness of the need to subordinate individual agendas to a common cause, which is how they build compelling platforms, which individual candidates hook onto like sucker fish on a shark.

Earth Day, despite its prominence, is a perfect example of ego as the Achilles Heel of the Left in general and the environmental movement in particular. There are actually two different, competing Earth Days, with two distinct factions behind them, one of which believes Earth Day is rightfully celebrated on April 22nd each year, while the other believes Earth Day naturally falls on the vernal equinox — either March 20th or 21st, depending on, well, depending on when the Almanac says it falls that year. I've named the two factions “Aprilistas” and “Equinazis”.

This might seem a silly feud, which it is — both silly and a true feud, going back 35 years to the first Earth Day — er, Days — in 1970. The two factions each claim to be the One True Church of Earth, and each has its Patron Saint. The Equinazis claim John McConnell, a 90-year old environmentalist and peace activist, who proposed Earth Day in September of 1969 to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which responded with an official Earth Day Proclamation. The UN recognized the date, as did certain prominent individuals including anthropologist Margaret Mead.

At roughly the same time as John McConnell was pitching Earth Day to the SF Supes, Senator Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nationwide environmental protest “to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda.” 20 million Americans came together on April 22, 1970 to protest the deterioration of the environment. Earth Day 1990 was even bigger, tallying participation of 200 million people in 141 countries, increasing to hundreds of millions of people in a record 184 countries by April 22, 2000.

Senator Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest governmental honor for civilians in the United States — in 1995 for his role as founder of Earth Day (at least the Earth Day of Aprilistas).

Equinazis feel entitled to claim the earlier, earthier Earth Date as the One True Earth Day not merely because Mr. McConnell supposedly preached his gospel weeks before Senator Nelson, but also because the vernal equinox is just a cooler day for an environmental holiday: “The first moment of Spring,” rhapsodized McConnell, “when day and night are equal around the world and hearts and minds can join together with thoughts of harmony and Earth's rejuvenation.” Or as Margaret Mead explained: “The vernal equinox calls on all mankind to recognize and respect Earth's beautiful systems of balance, between the presence of animals on land, the fish in the sea, birds in the air, mankind, water, air and land. Most importantly there must always be awareness of the actions by people that can disturb this precious balance.”

Like most modern feuds, this one plays out primarily on the internet, with the Equinazis huddling at the spartan www.earthsite.org, and the Aprilistas lounging at the slicker www.earthday.net. Both sites outline special activities for their special days, and take potshots at the other camp. The Equinazis seem the testier bunch, warning: “Remember — Earth Day for People is on the March equinox each year, while Earth Day for Corporations falls on April 22.”

Yet despite the profundity of their floating date, few individuals and even fewer organizations — the SF Supes and the United Nations notwithstanding — celebrate Earth Day on the equinox, which has not decreased the zeal of the Equinazis, any more than enthusiasts of the “universal language” of Esperanto are daunted by the fact that hardly anyone speaks it. The only thing the Aprilistas have going for their date is that it doesn't float — it's the same every year. Despite Equinazi propaganda to the contrary, when you look at the turn-out for the respective dates, it becomes apparent that not just corporations like predictability in their holiday planning.

So will the Real Earth Day please stand up? Neither date seems inherently better than the other, the more important point being that a 35-year feud over when we celebrate the Earth does nothing but distract people from the larger message of environmental protection, and on top of that, furthers the widely held view that the Left is dominated by self-righteous, undisciplined cranks who not only can't win a race, but can't even agree when it will be held.