364 More Earth Days, Please

In honor of Earth Day, politicians, celebrities and the media went nuts yesterday celebrating our need to do more for the Earth and help reduce the country's massive carbon footprint to reduce the potentially disastrous effects of climate change. The Earth Day hysteria will probably continue through today and hopefully the weekend. But come Monday, it'll be back to business as usual in Congress, Hollywood, and TV.

In the 40 years since Earth Day debuted here in the US, the eco-holiday has grown impressively in clout and impact. What began with community activism has become a global phenomenon. But why limit ourselves to one day on which sustainability is our top priority? Streetsblog's Matthew Roth explains that celebrating the earth once yearly equates it to Valentines Day or Halloween. "You shouldn't need an excuse to share love, bedeck yourself in costume, or minimize your carbon footprint one day out of the year," he writes. "If those values are important to you, they should be reflected in your quotidian routine."

Some environmental activists have tried to build on the success of Earth Day to create other enviro-focused celebrations throughout the year. Bill McKibben's 350, for example, chose October 10 as its day to advocate bringing the CO2 in our atmosphere back below 350 parts per million. And on March 28 this year, the World Wildlife Fund sponsored Earth Hour 2010, on which people in 4,000 cities worldwide turned off their lights for an hour. The symbolism of both events is clear. But can they succeed in bringing earth-consciousness a daily priority more than a few times a year?

From the looks of last year's 350 Day of Action, moving beyond symbolism could be difficult. It's very powerful to see images of children and community activists worldwide spelling out 350 for photographers. But at the 10/10 event in downtown San Francisco, for one, the message was more diluted. I saw people dressed as polar bears, scuba divers, and bikers riding the city's "future coastline," but little substantive discussion about how to get us below 350. (See a video of the event here.)

As for Earth Hour, an event that lasts for one of the year's nearly 9,000 total hours can't be much more than symbolic. And in response to WWF claims that Earth Hour Australia resulted in a drop of electricity equivalent to taking 48,613 cars off the road for an hour, critics say that spread throughout the year, Earth Hour only saves the equivalent of taking six cars off the road.

I'm not intending to diminish the importance of symbolism. In addition to making a small tangible impact, symbolic events can inspire individuals to spend more time on the environment year round. But this year Earth Day reminded me, above all, that we need to do more to honor the year's 364 non-Earth Days. 350 and Earth Hour got the ball rolling, but little will change until citizens and members of Congress begin taking more personal responsibility for their daily routines.

Photo credit: street protest tv