Is Earth Day Bad For the Planet?

JunkScience.com Blog » Blog Archive » Burning Question: Is Earth Day Bad For the Planet?

"The danger is we let ourselves be happy with gestures rather than substance," said Hal Harvey, environment-program director for the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, which helps bankroll prominent environmental groups. Mr. Harvey sat next to a woman on a flight who took what she thought was a principled environmental stand: She refused creamer for her coffee because of its tiny plastic-cup packaging — amid
the din of jet engines burning thousands of gallons of fuel.
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Environmentalists are arguing about how hard to push. In Washington, they have helped engineer a surprisingly wide coalition of businesses calling on the government to limit greenhouse-gas emissions. But that coalition is cracking as each company guns to shift the pain to someone else. Activists worry that the next step — putting together federal legislation to cap global warming — may break it apart. "The question is whether this environmental coalition holds," said Mr. Hayes.