“Instead of meaningful action, such as voting for politicians that make the environment a priority, we end up with short-term action that doesn’t really make the lasting impact we want.”
—Satya Ramen, veteran eco-activist
“We need Earth Days. To sell something you must tell it and tell it again. Even if we only give lip service to one day a year it’s better than none at all.”
—Walter Regan, President, Sackville Rivers Association
“I would worry if awareness was contained to one day per year, but it isn’t. It’s still useful to have events like Earth Day”
—Howard Epstein, MLA Halifax Chebucto
“Earth Day is not a complete waste of time. It does create a brief moment in people’s increasingly busy lives where the environment takes centre stage and there is benefit in that.”
—Chris Miller, wilderness & conservation coordinator, CPAWS
“So far I have not seen any value to Earth Day; I’m not a big fan of these things. I don’t see any real change from 1970; Earth Day has become a franchise.”
—Richard Zurawski, meteorologist and author
This article appears in Apr 21-27, 2011.
