An Earth Day Celebration That Grows Bigger and Stronger Each Year

There may be small pockets of the U.S. with higher concentrations of well-educated liberals than Santa Barbara, CA—perhaps Berkeley or Cambridge. In any case, as one could predict, Santa Barbara hosts a whale of an Earth Day celebration each year, replete with literally hundreds of booths manned by people with pro-environmental products: solar PV, zero-emission vehicles, artificial grass, cutting-edge insulation technology, solar lighting, etc. Along with the products are environmental concepts and causes more generally, e.g., sustainable fishing, public radio, progressive political candidates and encouraging the overthrow of oppressive regimes.

Some of these concepts are loftier than others. Of note is “A Year Without War,” whose purpose is to create, by the year 2020, a social movement large enough to tip history away from war as a solution to our disagreements with one another.

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.  – George Washington

Something to think about.