The forgotten holiday

Does anyone care about Earth Day anymore?

BY EMMILY BRISTOL

So-called greeting card holidays -- Valentine's Day, Mother's and Father's days -- sometimes ring phony. And with groups lobbying for such self-important celebrations as Ice Cream Week and Friendship Week, well, the holiday waters are getting pretty cloudy.

So what about Earth Day, which turned 35 on April 22? Certainly the environmental holiday is younger than most. But is it important anymore?

If you didn't celebrate Earth Day you're not alone. Even the opinion pages in San Francisco -- the city credited as the birthplace of Earth Day -- voiced concern that the holiday is not only losing its impact, but the environmental community itself is out of touch with the common American.

"As the world marks the 35th anniversary of Earth Day on Friday, environmentalists are debating the future of a movement that seems to be losing the battle for public opinion," says Terence Chea, an Associated Press writer, in an opinion published by the San Francisco Gate.

Tara Smith of the local Sierra Club chapter says there is a tendency for environmentalists to talk only to each other. "As an environmental community, we need to do more to talk outside the usual suspects," Smith says.

And Las Vegas seems to have fewer vocal environmentalists than many other large cities. Asked for names of other local environmentalists, Smith was initially at a loss. "There aren't that many," she admits.

Sierra Club volunteer Bill James says Earth Day isn't as popular as it was 10 or 15 years ago. "There are a few people. A few hard-core [people] like me and my wife," he says.

Local Earth Day events mostly centered around school-based activities and at least one fair.

"It's a great school project -- the math tie-in, the science tie-in," Smith says.

Summerlin Earthfaire -- hosted by the Howard Hughes Corp., Sprint, Starbucks and media outlets including the Las Vegas Review-Journal -- is one of the only local, major events this year. (Stephens Media Group owns the Review-Journal and CityLife.)

But the Summerlin event doesn't hold a candle to similar Earth Day events held in larger cities like Seattle and Houston.

"It [local Earth Day activities] doesn't seem like much to me," says James, a 30-year Las Vegan. "I think that's appropriate because there isn't much thinking about the environment here. Overall, this community doesn't know a lot about Earth Day. I would like it to be important to people."

James says during his time in Las Vegas he's seen the developers win out over the environment as a matter of course. The proposed heliport in the southern part of the valley -- which would allow tourist helicopters to fly over the environmentally sensitive Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area -- was a last straw for James. "That seems to be an indication of what Las Vegas is about," he says.

Geoffrey Johnson, program coordinator for the Maryland-based national nonprofit the Green Life, says there's a correlation between the type of community and its level of Earth Day activity.

"A celebration of Earth Day in a given community is a reflection of that community's environmental priorities," Johnson says. "If Las Vegas has no infrastructure of environmentalism, [groups] who work on these issues year-round, then there's not going to be a strong Earth Day celebration."

Johnson points to Earth Day event corporate sponsorships as part of the problem.

"Genuinely green businesses tend to be smaller and tend to have fewer resources to sponsor events," he says. Green Life itself is largely dedicated to rooting out "greenwashing," a practice in which polluting companies use advertising to cast themselves as ecologically friendly. Johnson says one example is the Marathon Oil company hosting the Houston Earth Day festival.

"Certainly, it's a green PR tool," Johnson says.

Smith agrees: "It's a double-edged sword. It's a good public relations aspect for them. I think those that focus on it [the environment] don't tout themselves on Earth Day."

Another frustration is that often the focus is on being green for one day, rather than motivating long-term change.

"The first Earth Day catalyzed the environmental movement. But year to year, it's less clear the effect Earth Day has," Johnson says. "It's not just supposed to be an ecologically friendly event, but a day to start [a dialogue], to organize."

The most popular year-round environmental activity is recycling, which Smith says is a good step -- but there could be more. It may be a coincidence that Republic Services floated the idea of changing trash and recycling pick-up schedules just before Earth Day. The idea was put on hold after the public objected to one segment of the plan, which would see garbage collection drop to once per week.

The local Sierra Club is launching a two-pronged campaign called Building Environmental Communities. One component of the program is a livable communities campaign designed to fuel neighborhood-level discussion. The second component is an energy campaign -- and this time the heat is on state power companies.

"The power companies have failed to meet the standard," Smith says, referring to a state law requiring power companies to use more green energy.

It's not all doom and gloom, however. Smith sees the mood changing in terms of environmentalism in Southern Nevada.

"Someone once told me, 'People move here so they won't be bothered,'" Smith says. "But now with so many people moving here from other places, and as much as people hate it many are coming from California, they are looking for solutions.

"It is good to see this changing tide from within the state."

Emmily Bristol is a CityLife staff writer. She can be reached at 871-6780 ext. 344 or ebristol@lvpress.com.