It’s Not Easy Being Green, but Earth Day Has Helped
Thursday marks the last Earth Day in this century, and its 30th consecutive observance. That gives much cause for celebration because it means that the environmental momentum of the spring of 1970 has carried on for three decades, that the idea of setting aside a special day to recognize ecological needs is alive and well.
True, Earth Day 30 is not the headline grabber of Earth Day 1. The big rallies and unveiling of environmental legislation marking Earth Days of old are missing.
What is there, however, is the fact that Earth Day is now a part of our annual landscape. This is no small achievement in our resource-devouring, land-developing, air-polluting society.
Like every other living thing, Earth Day has undergone considerable evolution. Twenty-nine years ago, Earth Day meant industry-bashing. A mega-event in Chicago that I was involved in that first year was typical: Everyone on the platform blamed industry for pollution, but didn’t believe it could be motivated to change. The event, “Project Survival,” was an all-night gala that included everyone from U.S. Sen. Adlai Stevenson III (D-Ill.) to folk singer Tom Paxton, who had written a song especially for the evening.
I don’t recall anyone from industry on the platform. “Green” business then was considered the ultimate in oxymorons. No one on either the giving or the receiving end of the business-bashing ever thought you could actually save money by protecting the environment.
Today, the concept of green, or sustainable, business practices that increase profitability while decreasing environmental impacts has firmly taken hold. While pollution prevention does not always pay, experience since Earth Day 1 has shown that the private sector has some genuine economic incentives to reduce its effluents. Industry has generated dramatic examples of how--if it tries hard enough--it can make more money by polluting less.
The post-Earth Day 1 automobile industry presents a powerful example. Today’s cars are considerably cleaner than they were nearly a third of a century ago, and the automobile industry is healthier than ever.
How well I recall the late Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mike Royko, one of the celebrities at that long-ago Earth Day 1 affair, asking me, in his trademark caustic way: “Yeah, fine. This is great. But is it really going to make any difference?”
Look around, in 1999, and see how environmental protection has gone mainstream, how business, as well as business bashers, are endorsing the idea of the green bottom line that ecological preservation and economic growth should be complementary.
I think the answer, Mr. Royko, is yes.
Arthur H. Purcell is an environmental management analyst based in L.A. He is writing a book on sustainable business practices, which will be published by Cambridge University Press next year.
