Thursday, April 22, 2010

EARTH DAY is a SELLOUT - THE AL GORE HIPPY SPINZONE

Another rant from Brian Copeland of Euphonic Dissonance

EARTH DAY LOST THE WAY


EarthDayLogo Euphonic Dissonance

I have a theory. I BELIEVE THAT ALL INSTITUTIONS BECOME CORRUPT OVER TIME. When an institution loses the founder/s (and they always do) then someone takes over with a slightly different vision and at that point the INSTITUTION IS CORRUPT!!!! It's unavoidable. It's a fact of life that we just have to learn to live with and work around. Sadly this seems to be the fate of the EARTH DAY movement. They have lost sight of their original intentions. They have become the thing they despise - A BIG GREEDY CORPORATE WHORE. EARTH DAY and all this GREEN stuff is becoming a huge money making industry and that money is going directly into the pockets of cats like AL GORE.

If you don't believe me then check out this NEW YORK TIMES article:

At 40, Earth Day Is Now Big Business
To quote a small section of the article....

"To many pioneers of the environmental movement, eco-consumerism, creeping for decades, is intensely frustrating and detracts from Earth Day’s original purpose.  This ridiculous perverted marketing has cheapened the concept of what is really green,” said Denis Hayes, who was national coordinator of the first Earth Day and is returning to organize this year’s activities in Washington. “It is tragic."

I sincerely hope that the current planners of EARTH DAY turn this thing around. It shouldn't be a CORPORATE WHORE. It may seem to those that support this effort that all this corporate attention is a good thing but think about the cost. Maybe a logo that gets more to the point would be a step in the right direction. May I suggest the following....

earth-day new logo euphonic dissonance

And this brings me to what I really want to talk about.

GREEN LIVING VS ENERGY INDEPENDENCE


When GREEN LIVING faces off with ENERGY INDEPENDENCE in the boxing ring my money is on ENERGY INDEPENDENCE. Sadly these two things shouldn't be fighting but I find it hard to get behind SOLAR POWER ENERGY because it saves us from the evils of fossil fuels. However, if you tell me it might make America slightly less reliant on foreign oil you suddenly have my attention.

What's my point? Well, I feel that the GREEN MOVEMENT is missing a middle ground that would bring a lot more people to their cause. I'll support just about anything that makes the United States less dependent on foreign import and makes good financial sense. I support anything that also helps me not be indebted to the big ELECTRIC AND GAS COMPANIES. I'm not a tree hugging hippy but I can definitely get behind a movement that improves our standing in the world. Why aren't they marketing this stuff to people that think the way I do instead of telling me how many trees I'm saving!!!! I don't give a rat's ass about a bunch of trees that aren't even my friggin' trees. I have no emotional attachment to some cute little furry animals in a forest that I've never even been to. However, I do understand a need to conserve and become more efficient. That we can talk about. There are no melting icebergs/glaciers in my backyard so I don't have firsthand knowledge of such things - that we can't talk about. I do see that we need to be less reliant on the rest of the world. That we can talk about. If you're going to make a sale to me then you had better tell me something I want to hear and I guarantee you there are a lot of people out there just like me that are missing the GREEN LIVING message because it sounds too much like HIPPY RHETORIC.

And I will straight up kick you in the jimmy if you even mention a CARBON FOOTPRINT!!!

Have a great EARTH DAY. Hope you're doing it for all the right reasons.

Opinions expressed by Brian Copeland do not necessarily reflect the views of Euphonic Dissonance - most of the time.