04.23 | can we actually take back earth day?

Words like green, sustainable, net-zero, environmentally friendly, organic, climate neutral, and fossil free are today so misused and watered down that they have pretty much lost all their meaning.
– Greta Thunberg

✉️ letter #35

I don't want to be a negative nancy but as Earth Day has come and taken over this weekend, I've felt pretty whatever about it.

There's this pressure to say something, considering how generally invested I am in disseminating information about the environment, but with what a disappointment COP26 turned out to be, it's hard to be optimistic about the little actions individuals can take to be more "environmentally-friendly" and "carbon negative."

Elaine’s little primer to COP26

So, unless you’re under a very specific climate change-denying rock, you probably knew that there was some major world leaders’ meeting going on right now that had something to do with the environment. I try to break it down.

elaine is xyzelaine

Especially since, like many other "movements" out there (PRIDE, International Women's Day), this one has been taken over by the very corporations with their boot on the neck of environmental activists.

The Twitter account @EarthRightsIntl is doing a great job highlighting states and energy corporations being hypocritical messes - case in point: The American Petroleum Institute is currently lobbying to make environmental protest illegal while also sending out #EarthDay tweets.

It's not just energy companies though. There aren't very many consumer brands out there who can really say they're good for the earth:

• Zara & H&M both have "sustainability initiatives, but their very business models generate tons of unnecessary waste.
• Coca Cola-owned Innocent had a whole campaign on how it was doing good for the earth, while utilizing unrecyclable plastic bottles. It was finally pulled after a lot of protest. Coca Cola itself generates more plastic pollution than any other company in the world.
• There are actually way too many companies to count. Truth in Advertising has a running list which includes the above, and also "sustainable brands" like Burts Bees, Whole Foods and Oatly.

Basically, if you were hoping to consume yourself into ethical existence, it's not possible. But it's also really hard to avoid all brands that do bad stuff in your regular life - for instance, if you wanted to stop putting money into the pockets of Nestle (one of the possibly most ultracapitalist nothing matters but the money consumer companies in existence), you would also have to avoid L'Oreal, which means you'd have to avoid The Body Shop and Kiehl's.

And in case you're wondering, yes, Nestle is also putting out its own Earth Day advertising. It's Waters division, known for basically commandeering public waters and then selling it in bottled form, put out this video.

It's sickening and sad.

I don't like to end on a cynical note, so I guess if there's one thing I feel everyone could do on Earth Day, it's to do a quick google search on every brand you see out there promoting it, and if they're as greenwashing as most other brands out there, to call them out on it.

Buy whatever you need to buy in the end (though obviously, if you can, focus on local and independent businesses whereever possible), but don't let these companies get away with dressing themselves up in fake green clothes.

Oh also: reviving this piece I did a couple years ago on the aesthetics of Zero Waste, in which I rail against mason jars and beeswax wraps.

Happy Earth Day: 5 zero waste hacks that aren’t worth it

To honor that conflict between the intention and the execution, I’m going to have a little poke at a movement I admire, am always working towards, and love learning more about, but which sometimes gives advice that borders on parody: Zero Waste.

elaine is xyzelaine

🌱 the ethical ideas newsreel

• Here's a very fascinating critique of how creative writing classes began divorcing the craft of writing from the content of writing during the Cold War, which has led to this dynamic of "novels" being one thing while "political books" being another.
• "A growing movement of scientists, land management agencies, conservation organizations, and Indigenous groups is working to return fire to marshes and to fire-adapted forests and grasslands throughout the United States." For anyone who's read up on the history of our disastrous "no fire ever" policy... fricking finally.
• I'm glad the new Netflix show Old Enough! (which I haven't seen) is bringing the conversation of autonomy for kids back into the mainstream. Turns out when you trust kids to learn how to do tasks out there in the world, they're happier and healthier for it.
• Speaking of, if you have kids and you're trying to figure out how to tell them about climate change without subjecting them to the anxiety of climate #doom you sometimes feel, here is a good book for that.

🎵 song of my week

I've mentioned like twice now that I am a big fan of the Harry Styles pop song As It Was. Now someone has made a "What if the Strokes covered" it version which somehow is even more awesome.

I first found this on TikTok, which I've been spending way too much time on ever since I've come to the United States.

But hey, somehow I've also been much more successful with my videos on there than anywhere else. Guess I was made for a platform that does bite-sized entertainment.

✨enjoying: one final piece of pop culture fun

Okay to be honest, this whole week was work work work work work and I was often so exhausted from doing work that I didn't really get to actually sit down, relax and watch/read anything I would consider good.

So uh, here's the trailers of some things that are on my Want to Watch list:

Yikes. But I want to know more!!!

I saw this trailer right before the Everything Everywhere movie and felt immediately charmed. Nic Cage brings 110% Nic Cage, and Pedro Pascal is just the best at being bromantic. I am so curious!!!

I gotta admit I'm actually looking forward to this more than I am Multiverse of Madness. While I really loved Wandavision, I'm not much of a fan of Dr. Strange. His original movie felt like total White Savior nonsense and his role in Spiderman: No Way Home made us all wonder if he had been replaced by a dumber multiverse variant (like, I GET that we needed him to mess up a massively worldchanging spell for the movie to work, but WHY?). Meanwhile, Taika Waititi's Thor is heartfelt but fun. When it comes to Marvel movies, I just want to have fun!!!

Speaking of fun:

I'm actually watching this tomorrow!!!

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