Neither Prompt Nor Adequate

In Santa Barbara, Earth Day has traditionally been celebrated with many tents and booths in a local park, all announcing/embracing policies and methods intended to help preserve the viability of the planet we live on.

Twenty years ago, as editor of The Green Scene, newsletter of the local Green Party, I wrote a five-page editorial “Fiddling While Earth Burns,” documenting what international climate experts were telling us of the danger to us all should we continue our massive use of fossil fuels, which were heating the planet to a degree that was irreversible if not addressed promptly and adequately.

Nothing has changed in any way adequate to the threat.

That editorial quoted former vice-president Al Gore: “The minimum that is scientifically necessary [to combat global warming] far exceeds the maximum that is politically feasible.”

The succeeding 20 years have only bolstered his claim.

So any participants in April 22’s Earth Day can have nothing truthful to say to their visitors except, “Goodbye to you and yours.”