To the Editor:
Earth Day, April 22, is important to members of the Green Party of Pennsylvania. In past years, GPPA has held big events for Earth Day. I remember when we organized with our movement friends to hold Earth Day 2013 demonstrations at every regional office of the PA Department of Environmental Protection because they were not protecting the environment from the fossil fuel industry.
This year, PA Greens were prepared to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day by participating with the Youth Climate Strike Coalition (strikewithus.org) in disrupting the fossil fuel industry’s business as usual. Due to the global pandemic, PA Greens are now organizing alternatives.
For the Green Party, Earth Day is every day. We recognize the existential crisis of climate change that we are currently facing as a planet, and we are the only political party that has the courage to address climate change head-on, willing to make the necessary changes, instead of fearfully pandering to the status quo and calling it "practicality."
The challenges on this 50th anniversary include climate change, biodiversity loss and resource scarcity, and unfortunately, the policies of the duopoly fail to address such concerns adequately. Only the Green Party envisions a platform with planks that demand bold, immediate responses rather than the slow, incremental pace set by the two major parties. Ignore corporate green washing this Earth Day and join forces with a planet-wide political force that is our best chance of salvaging civilization and the rest of the biosphere. Register and vote Green in 2020 and beyond.
PA Greens are now joining with Youth Climate Strike Coalition to ask organizers to no longer physically mass mobilize for Earth Day and to instead think critically and creatively about how to engage their communities in disrupting business as usual through different and new tactics.
If you would like to become a member of the Green Party, or if you would like to volunteer to help Green Party candidates appear on the ballot for the General Election, Nov. 3, please contact your county Green Party. You may also volunteer at gpofpa.org/green_wave_2020_signup.
The Green Party of PA is an independent political party that stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. GPPA candidates promote public policy based on the Green Party’s four pillars: grassroots democracy, nonviolence, ecological wisdom, and social justice/equal opportunity. For further information about GPPA, please visit gpofpa.org or email contact@gpofpa.org. Please follow GPPA on social media: Facebook and Twitter.
Chris Robinson, Communications Team
Beth Scroggin, Recording Secretary, Chester County
Doug Mason, Chair, Centre County
Green Party of Pennsylvania
“My years working in the Green movement are the culmination of a social justice spirit that I garnered from attending the first Earth Day with 60,000 others on April 22, 1970, in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. We went to celebrate our planet's environment and raise public awareness about pollution. Many of the 20 million who participated nationwide went on, like me, to pursue careers in ecological advocacy or to engage in related political activism." --Doug Mason, Chair, Centre County