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Earth Day

Jill

Tomorrow is Earth Day — and according to the New Yorker, it isn’t what it used to be:

The first celebration of Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, was a raucously exuberant affair. In New York, Fifth Avenue was closed to traffic. People picnicked on the sidewalk; dead fish were dragged through midtown; and Governor Nelson Rockefeller rode a bicycle across Prospect Park. Students in Richmond, Virginia, handed out bags of dirt (to represent the “good earth”); demonstrators in Washington poured oil onto the sidewalk in front of the Interior Department (to protest recent oil spills); and in Bloomington, Indiana, women dressed as witches threw birth-control pills into the crowd (no one was quite sure why). All told, some twenty million Americans took part—far more than the man who thought up the occasion, Senator Gaylord Nelson, Democrat of Wisconsin, had expected. “That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day,” Nelson later said. “It organized itself.”

I have a sneaking suspicion that were the Earth Day of 1970 recreated, Feministe readers would be the witches throwing out birth control pills (and in Indiana at that. Hmm).

So other than tossing birth control pills at unsuspecting crowds, what are you all doing to honor Earth Day? Any big plans? Any small environmentally-friendly efforts?

15 thoughts on Earth Day

  1. “women dressed as witches threw birth-control pills into the crowd (no one was quite sure why)”

    Wait, seriously? I mean, dressing up as witches is maybe a little weird (unless they were trying to get at the idea of witches as ancient pharmacists who assisted with childbirth and attempted birth control and abortions), but using birth control is the number one thing you can do to reduce your impact on the earth.

  2. Sadly, all of the organized efforts in my area are generally on the Saturday after actual Earth Day. When I work. Rather, the one day I work when I actually have to BE somewhere at a given time. *sigh*

    So what’s going on this week is general prep for my garden — both veggie and extending the perennials. My goal is to eliminate as much grass in my yard as possible (I may leave a few paths/patches just to have a contrast). We made good progress in that general direction last year, and this year’s plan includes a rain garden, and stealth veggies in the perennials where there is enough sun. I already forgo chemical fertilizers and herbicides — I weed the old fashioned way, on my hands and knees, and my dandelions are lovely, thank you. *grin* (Seriously, if my mother-in-law mentions them one more time, I may have to throw something at her. Grrrrrrr….) So, I guess you could say we’re organic gardeners. I also compost everything I can, and try for the hardy garden plants that don’t need to be watered tons. We are on the waiting list to get into the (very!) local community garden, which is organic only. I’ve been trying, this winter especially, to be more conscious of where my food comes from and eat more locally. (Challenging in the winter in MN. ) I often take a bag with me on walks to clean up any trash I encounter, or at least take it to the park garbage/recycling cans. We are generally trying to lead a more environmentally conscious life, or at least I’m pushing us that way. 😉

    I’ll be interested to see what other folks are doing. I can always use good ideas. 🙂

  4. If it isn’t too cold and doesn’t rain, I’ll be getting my garden ready to be planted tomorrow after work. And I may put in carrots (my kids are very insistent about the carrots, especially the little one) and a few other things that the next few weeks of still kinda cold weather won’t kill if I have time and again, it doesn’t rain.

  5. Considering Pat Robertson’s famous quote about feminism, dressing as witches isn’t that incomprehensible. AND the Bloomington I.U. campus is famously liberal, especially about sex and reproductive issues in no small part thanks to the Kinsey Institute. New Yorker, clue stick, you’re on notice.

  7. women dressed as witches threw birth-control pills into the crowd (no one was quite sure why)

    In this context, the parenthetical qualifier “no one was quite sure why” implies that somebody, somewhere, has an explanation for why dead fish were dragged through midtown in celebration.

  11. but using birth control is the number one thing you can do to reduce your impact on the earth.

    If this is true, wouldn’t suicide be one up on birth control?

  12. @Tom Foolery, considering the post right after this one, suicide jokes aren’t funny today. Thanks.

  13. I think with everything like this, but with Earth Day especially, the more important part is what you do the rest of the year, no?

    The times when I heroically threw myself in front of nuclear waste transports are over, but I’m with a green, nuclear fee electricity provider, I still try not to be wasteful with either power or water. I live in the city, but I get a weekly veggie delivery from local organic farmers (including the odd fair trade banana).
    I don’t have a driver’s license. I recycle, of course, and more importantly, I’m trying to reduce the amount of stuff I buy in the first place, or try to get things used.
    And yes, I do think not having kids (as opposed to suicide, really not funny) is an important contribution.

  15. Isn’t it a little too early to conclude that we have “destroyed” the planet?

    We still haven’t given Nuclear Power a chance.

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