Earth Day, at the Mall

Somehow Americans manage to turn every holiday -- from Christmas to Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, the 4th of July, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, so-called President's Day and the rest -- into a shopping opportunity.

Perversely, this is now happening to Earth Day, as companies try to persuade us that we can shop our way to a cleaner, greener planet.

Crazy, isn't it? Along with coal plants, gas-guzzling SUVs and climate deniers, the American way of producing and consuming and discarding, buying lots of stuff we don't need that isn't going to make us happy anyway is, not to put too fine a point on it, trashing the only planet we have.AI-edhmug40

This is not what the first Earth Day -- 40 years ago, in 1970 -- was all about. It was a political event. It was about building an environmental movement. It was led by young people and scientists and counter-culture types and it arrived at a time when support was building for other political and social movements as well -- the opposition to the Vietnam War, the feminist movement and the gay rights movement, all of which were inspired by the civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s.

None of these were mainstream, at least not at first. None were about shopping.

Earth Day led to the environmental laws of the early 1970s, which brought real and dramatic change: Our air and water are cleaner, parks and wilderness have been conserved, species have been protected.

Today, Earth Day is mainstream. An recent MBA grad I know says that's a good thing. She told me by email:

I think it's generally good if green is mainstream as more companies are offering environmental products. That way we Berkeley types aren't the only crazy ones!

I'm not so sure. Buying a T-shirt or tote bag won't curb climate change or protect endangered habitat. That takes politics, organizing, hard work.

Here are some of the Earth Day products that have been brought to my attention in the days leading up to the 40th anniversary. 

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 These are bhappybags -- I'm not making this up -- and they are described as an "attractive yet durable line of reusable shopping/tote, wine, yoga and dry-cleaning bags" that "help to eliminate the destructive overuse of disposable bags."