VB Dems

Considering that KGL (Kerry Graham Lieberman) climate bill, in order to secure the 60 votes it needs to pass, will contain compromises for drilling, it is probably best that the vote not coincide with Earth Day. It was the 1969 Santa Barbara disaster that is most credited with igniting the movement towards national celebrations of Earth Day. Instead the vote is likely to occur the following week.

Earth Day celebrates its 40th anniversary this year and I have such mixed emotions regarding its significance. As with everything, I can’t separate the politics from anything and this causes me to find Earth Day to be somewhat annoying. All the focus falls on recycling, scooping the poop, switching out light bulbs, planting trees – all good and certainly helpful things in building a conscientiousness that collectively makes our planet greener.

Earth Day started off as a political revolution and needs to become on yet again. We need an energy policy that like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act of yesteryear gets quickly to the root of what ails our planet before it’s too late. Energy policy means politics and when you talk politics while tabling at an Earth Day celebration, people recoil.

It’s so frustrating because instead of directly educating folks to the critical need for passing climate legislation, I’m trying to educate people how policy in the first place is integral to environmental protection in general.

I don’t know exactly why I dabble as fervently as I do into something as ugly as politics. But I suspect it has to do with the pictures in my head of the delicate beauty that our natural world still holds. How can politicians like Mayor Will Sessoms ignore what are similar pictures in his head and still want drilling to occur off Virginia Beach’s coast? Sure, we can talk jobs, money, tourism, technology anytime. The anti-drilling argument wins on those issues every time. It’s almost as if we have to take him by the back of the head and force his nose into seeing, smelling, tasting and hearing exactly what makes our coastal environment one that needs to be treasured and guarded within an inch of our lives. Compromise it and that foundation on which politicians like Sessoms have built their mighty castles crumbles away.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 5:52 am and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.