Earth Day and Reality

Rio and You

Earth Day scouts. 

Today, Corpoesus organized this cheery Earth Day celebration in the National Park commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Rio Summit. But, while Colombia has been much more responsible than some of its neighbors, including Ecuador and Venezuela, and generates much less per-capita impact than developed nations.

But Colombia is also experiencing intense deforestation and overfishing. And in Bogota, at least, pollution seems to go unhindered, while about 100,000 additional gasoline-gobbling cars flood the city annually.

No Colombian celebration is complete without a señorita. Here's Miss Earth. 

One Less Car. 

But the reality isn't quite so green.....

Brisa boasts that its bottled water is 'eco' because you can twist the bottle's neck, to presumably occupy less space in the landfill. Isn't that great, for a virtually unnecessary, completely disposable product?  

Trash bins in the National Park are labeled for glass, paper, food and other products, but people toss garbage in indiscriminately. And trash collectors dump everything together, anyway. 

Unheeded, a tanker truck belches smoke into Bogotá's air. 

A battery recycling stand provides convenient advertising space. Wonder what happens to the old batteries? But wouldn't it be better just to sell rechargeables instead?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours