Earth Day L.A.- A critique.

The 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica is one of the best shopping locations in L.A. United Colors of Benetton, Puma, Lucky-- it's where trendiness goes to be sold out. So, naturally, it's the perfect location for an Earth Day festival, right?

I didn't think so, either.

In case you missed it, Saturday was the Earth Day Festival held at the 3rd Street Promenade. How does one celebrate Earth Day in L.A., you ask. By selling stuff, of course! Earth-friendly stuff, mind you. Now, technically, Saturday was not Earth Day. It's actually on the 22nd. But as I browsed through hemp shirts, surrounded by the mansions of fashion, I couldn't ignore the ambivalence I felt about the entire situation. As I was mulling over whether or not to spend $30 on a long sleeved hemp shirt, my friend whispered to me, "3rd Street is a very materialistic place to hold a festival about the environment." My thoughts exactly.

I didn't buy the shirt.

My point is, shouldn't an Earth Day festival entail some sort of Earth-improving activity, besides test driving an electric car? The Earth Day Festival was an opportunity for environmental organizations to organize some sort of environmental clean up activity. 3rd Street is seconds away from the beach, yet the words 'beach clean up' never crossed anyone's lips. I don't know who organized the festival, but I couldn't help feeling like they could have done more than present us with (independent) vendors hocking environmentally-friendly wares.

Earth Day could be a day where, instead of driving, everyone decides to carpool, or walk, or dare I say, ride the bus for a day. It could be a day where instead of going to work we all clean up a beach. Instead, we as a community were given the choice to buy a hemp shirt or an electric vehicle. Neither of these are bad things; but it seems to me that lately the only way we're told to make a difference is to buy things.

The kicker: none of the vendors offered energy saving light bulbs. Nobody handed out flyers printed on recycled paper about how to reduce your energy use. I'm all for giving independent artisans a place to sell their crafts, but consumption will not save the Earth. But if you live in L.A., they'd sure like you to think it will.