Yesterday, I tweeted that I’m not a big fan of Earth Day.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of Spaceship Earth but I can’t see how focusing on taking care of Earth for one day a year can have a sufficient impact on our continued residence on this pale blue dot. Spending one a month a year to promote (read: exploit) African American contributions to American society is offensive. It creates a societal surge of interest (read: money) and then fades into the fringe of public consciousness.

Earth Day is, at best, a solid attempt at promoting a widespread change of consciousness with regard to altering our impact on this planet but I can’t help but feel that it falls short. Yes, we all should change our habits but it can’t stop there.

Feeling that as a tool for change, Earth Day isn’t working isn’t that difficult when 76% of American shoppers made purchases specifically because they were good for the environment.

Consuming in order to help heal a planet damaged by overconsumption is like George Carlin once said, “…fucking for virginity.”

Changing our habits is only part of the solution; in order to give our planet the attention that it deserves we’ll need to see Change on a legislative level and that means we’ll all have to speak up.