Today marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, a day to recognize our devastating effects on mother earth and celebrate the environmental movement. But, unlike 40 years ago when Earth Day was created in 1970 there are hidden agendas. That is, which company can profit the most and create personal gain and benefit. Earth day has lost its purpose over the years and has been turned around into “Which company can profit the most” by exploiting people and their confused notion of what Earth Day is all about. The concept of what this day is suppose to be recognized for has long been lost through cruel intentions.
Many New Yorkers saw this through an email sent by a prominent cupcake bakery who said that they were selling eco-friendly cupcakes with peace signs on them for today only. Who cares? It’s the same cupcake as any other cupcake they sell but with a peace sign on it. Why would they do this? To get customers in the door and profit on a concept which has been lost.
Earth day has turned into a popularity contest of who can get recognized better for doing the right thing. Many companies use this day to promote a better image for their company. Thus, you see many of them pledging a certain percentage of sales to donate to charity if you buy “green” or “earth friendly” products. One personal example of this is when I went into Albertsons today and proceeded to checkout. The cashier informed me that it was “Pay it forward day” and that the person before me had purchased this green Earth Day Every Day reusable bag, for Greener America, and that I have an opportunity to pay it forward by purchasing one for the person who comes to checkout after me. You know me, I haven’t done my “good deed” for the day and got suckered into purchasing it for the next person for a measly .79 cents. Now did I do this knowing that I would be putting more money in the pockets of Albertsons? Not intentionally, like most people I did it for personal gain – to help out mother earth. But did I really help out mother earth by purchasing this bag that is green? Not really. The only good thing that can possibly come out of this is that the person who checked out after me had a smile on his/her face (good, I got another thing off my list – make at least one person smile everyday).
Back to the point. So the question that has to be asked is, have we trailed away from what the true concept of Earth Day is suppose to be, just to reinforce the stigma of what our society represents – profit and gain, capitalism at its best.
