Another Earth Day has just passed us by and we still struggle to make our peace with her well-being. Why is this? With all the clean ups and tree plantings, with all of the plans to get rid of plastic bags and single use items over the decades since the first Earth Day, why are we still fighting these same battles with 54 Earth Days under our belt?
Is it because corporations with a money mindset have so much unregulated power they can keep polluting and creating single use products ad nauseum? That is absolutely a key part of the problem. But we also have too many consumers. Too many consumers to try to convince NOT to buy the products dangled in front of them with billions of dollars in advertising.
What can we do about the problem of too many consumers, who can’t really stop consuming water, shelter, food and energy? We first must come to a collective agreement that overpopulation is the major force behind biodiversity and climate destruction. We then have to incentivize putting the brakes on the entire human enterprise, knowing that we do so in order to survive.
Over the years Earth Day has become a day for corporations to sell us reusable bottles and bags and for groups to organize park clean ups. It is of course both arrogant and silly to think that the problems of the earth can be solved in one day’s commemoration. It is ridiculous to think our efforts will matter much when our world keeps on growing. Earth Day should be a day to refocus on the right problem, our growth.
Stabilized populations with plans to reduce human numbers humanely, have a better future in a world of exhilarating carbon and resources which will only become scarcer and more expensive. Yet cultural expectations for family size seems to be more powerful than daily reports about how our earth is struggling to support those here already with the basics of life.
It is progress to see that it is now more politically correct to promote having smaller families but it is still not being promoted by those who are in charge of Earth Day celebrations. Advocating for smaller families is the direction of the developed world but it is being overwhelmed by newcomers. Another topic Earth Day organizers won’t touch. Yet newcomers to countries with stable populations destabilize them. They bring them further and further from sustainability. No country has unlimited resources, least of all those who have the highest standards of living.
In the US, business loves cheap labor. But money driven decisions are not in sync with providing us with a sustainable country or planet. Need more workers? How about paying to train your own people and pay them a living wage? Want to help the marginalized? There are plenty of U.S. communities in need beginning with those living in poverty on many Indian reservations. Want to help people in other countries? Begin real dialogues with both government and non-government agencies to see how best to help them. By ignoring how unsustainable the US population is already at 336 million, we cannot keep allowing immigration policies to contribute to even greater problems as we grow even more unsustainable.
It won’t take much investigation to see that overpopulation is at the center of their problems too. But being their release valve, solves little in the big scheme of things and makes matters worse for the developed countries who had been on a more sustainable course.
I hope everyone tries to treat each day as if it were Earth Day. By all means, plant a tree and pick up trash. It is critical, however, that each of us insist that organizations who say they care about the environment also call for palatable ways for reducing the planet’s number one predator before the earth fixes the problem of too many humans herself.