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Earth Day 2024: Planet Vs. Plastics

April 2, 2024

Written by Sharma Shields

I laughed out loud reading the subtitle of a recently published book on the climate crisis called I Want a Better Catastrophe (see the full title in the book list below), recognizing myself in the term “Compassionate Doomer.” Local novelist Alexis M. Smith and I used to joke about doing a “Doom & Gloom Literary Tour” throughout the Northwest, her novel Marrow Island being about ecological despair, and my novel, The Cassandra, being about the Manhattan Project. My doomy perspective it that I’m not sure which will kill humanity off first: a lack of resources due to global climate change or the terrifying inevitability of nuclear warfare. Either one will set off the certainty of the other. I worry, always, about the world’s children.

As wonderfully innovative and creative as humans can be, we are also experts at destruction and extinguishment. Our technological advancements wield gleeful convenience alongside great peril. There’s an excellent novel about the thin line separating invention and destruction by Benjamín Labatut called When We Cease to Understand the World, which describes our efforts “yielding a world that would turn in on itself like an ouroboros.” Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, too, similarly asks about the monsters we create and then refuse to take care of, and their disastrous impacts on the world around us. As the creature tells his master, “Unfeeling, heartless creator! You had endowed me with perceptions and passions, and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind.” Like Dr. Frankenstein, we invent, and then we cast aside without accountability, and the repercussions of a world filled with invention’s horror and detritus are already deeply felt.

The theme for Earth Day 2024 (April 22) is Planet Vs. Plastics, involving a push to reduce plastics production by 60% before 2040. One of their initiatives, Babies Vs. Plastics, urgently communicates the research concerning microplastics. One of the points made on their fact sheet is that babies are inhaling and digesting ten times the amount of microplastics as adults. There is gathering evidence about damaged DNA and an increase in cancer risk, cardiovascular issues, and more. Before you start beating yourself up as a consumer, this is the powerful statement Earth Day.org writes about living in what they call The Plasticene: “Consumers did not create the plastic problem. The plastic industry and manufacturers have been force-feeding us plastic for decades.” It’s difficult for us to stop our plastic usage when industries and governments refuse accountability and change. But we can help organizations like EarthDay.org fight back. Easy steps include signing the Global Plastics Treaty, and going here to educate yourself on plastics and other action items.

At Central Library on April 20^th we’ll have an awesome Earth Day Family Celebration, filled with sustainable activities for all ages, not to mention the chance to take home one of 300 free trees. This is a buoyant community event supported by not only the library, but multiple sustainability partners within our region, including WaterWise, Master Gardeners, Spokane Zero Waste, Spokane Ponderosa, Spokane Aquifer Joint Board, Global Neighborhood Thrift, and more. It’s a reminder that there are organizations and people fighting against the doom and gloom, entities who are not just noticing and caring, but who are also working hard to inform, repair, and inspire meaningful change. It honestly makes my wonky, worried, Compassionate-Doomer heart let in some much-needed hope.

And there’s always hope to be found in books. Here’s a book list for Earth Day, inspired by both the world’s marvels and the ways it’s been imperiled.