Ceylon Today Editorial

How We Forgot Earth Day

25 April 2017

Last Saturday (22) the world celebrated and commemorated Earth Day – a day set apart for celebrating and demonstrating support for environmental protection. It is also a day we completely forgot about ironically even in the wake of the Meethotamulla garbage disaster.

Of course, we cannot be held responsible for forgetting Earth Day, where we usually celebrate the need of environmental protection, by turning off our lights for ten minutes or so (a rather useless gesture considering the bigger picture of climate change and the world going to hell). Even US President Donald Trump was rather ambiguous during his official Earth Day address – of course, being an advocate of anti-climate change ideologies (he believes it to be a myth created by neoliberal movements) it came as no surprise he forgot to mention the dire need to protect our environment, save our resources, the use of alternative energies for the betterment of our present, as well as the future.

The US administration's lack of ignorance and myopia when it comes to science, technology and research – which saw massive budget cuts once Trump grabbed power earlier this year – has now paved the way to a new movement that has mobilized those of the scientific communities to fight the age of ignorance that sees no importance in facts proven right.

Thus was the birth of the March for Science (formerly known as the Scientists' March on Washington) where a series of rallies and demonstrations were held in Washington, DC and more than 600 other cities across the world on Earth Day.

Organizers of the march had claimed that the march is a non-partisan movement to celebrate science and the role it plays in everyday lives. The goals of the marches and rallies were to emphasize that science upholds the common good and to call for evidence-based policy in the public's best interest. The march was organized by scientists skeptical of the agenda of the Trump administration, and critical of Trump administration policies widely viewed as hostile to science. The march's website states that an "American government that ignores science to pursue ideological agendas endangers the world".

Particular issues of science policy raised by the marchers include support for evidence-based policymaking, as well as support for government funding for scientific research, government transparency, and government acceptance of the scientific consensus on climate change and evolution.

Unfortunately for us, we didn't have anything close in resemblance to the March for Science on Earth Day, let alone any celebration that called for government's attention on environmental protection and scientific research into such matters. Sadly for us, to our government, environmental protection is yet another banner-call to show off their political prowess. It's yet another crusade adopted only when it's trending for our politicians, as well as our civil society activists – we are looking at you who call yourself Social Justice Warriors (SJWs). The best example for this was the Meethotamulla disaster – it was the people who were suffering from it who continued to fight against it that spoke about it and it was only after the dump collapsed the SJWs took up the fight for the people. Where were they before it collapsed? Apart from this, it was only after the disaster occurred that it occurred to President Maithripala Sirisena, himself, to make garbage collection and recycling essential throughout the country.

Until then, the President who is also the Minister of Environment was slumbering away in matters only he knows about. Unfortunately, this has been the role of all the predecessor governments as well – passive and reactive. It's about time they realized that there's no point in closing the stable gates once the horse is out.

Sri Lanka – you and me, the majority – is not a scientific community. We are a religious community. We would rather consult our many religions when faced with a problem, than find a plausible and practical solution – meaning we would rather pray when sick to be cured, than going to the doctor. This is apparent from our government's interest in sciences as well. Since 2009, the government's policy on scientific research and technology has remained unchanged and stagnant. Our Ministry of Science, Technology and Research exists only to promote science and innovation among schoolchildren by holding exhibitions every two years or so. Our government has not promoted nor have they funded scientific thinking, let alone research into solving our day-to-day problems. Our so-called scientists have become political 'G-Men' handling ministries, carrying out orders of their superiors.

They have been accused of being corrupt and of financial fraud on numerous occasions. Not all of them are men of science after all.

In a backdrop like that, it's no wonder Sri Lanka forgot Earth Day.