All Americans know how to do anymore is buy things. We don't volunteer for much, we don't belong to community organizations or clubs as much. So much time spent working to pay for our overpriced cars and mcmansions and health care costs. All the while our government sends our money off to the middle east.
Real Earth Day would be turning off electric devices, planting a tree, cleaning up a highway. Corporate America has taken over people's minds almost completely. They can make us think any holiday is time to have a sale to buy more stuff. Every store has Labor Day sales (labor should have the day off), Memorial Day, Fathers, Mothers, Valentines, Easter, etc etc sales.

That's not a bad idea, especially if environmentalists steal it.

We could start celebrating on the same days as the world's major religions.

Eventually, people would just switch over to celebrating the environment instead of Christmas, Easter, etc.

It worked well for Christianity, back in the day...

My hope is that by consistently putting my money where my conscience is, I'll be encouraging th mainstreaming of sustainable, chemical-free, merchandise.

Of course, since the first of the big 3 R's is REDUCE, I'll not be buying things I don't need simply because they're "Green."

This is pretty interesting. Seems Like Earth Day is becoming more and more mainstream. Hopefully we won't forget what the holiday is actually about!

Have you heard about Global Response? It's a non-profit org that carries out campaigns to protect environmentally valuable places around the world at the request of indigenous people. Their website is www.globalresponse.org if you'd like more info.

I think it is a backwards good thing. While selling clothes at a store is not exactly "green" by any means I can think of, the more people see and think Green, the more mainstream it becomes. The more mainstream it becomes, the more people are likely to actually make real Green choices like recycling.

Santa Claus's coat used to be "green" before a Coca-Cola campaign changed its color to red.

It totally makes me roll my eyes and mumble bad words under my breath.... but Dallas is right about spreading awareness to the folks who really are only mainstream and wouldn't get any dose of green if Wally world didn't shove it down their throats.

Umm. Happy Earth Day.

I admit I was doing a bit of an eye roll with the slew of "green" ads in the Sunday paper yesterday, but I agree with Dallas, raising awareness isn't a bad thing, and if corporations want to roll out their green initiatives, let them have it.

So they sell a bunch of low flow water devices, fluorescent bulbs, and safer pesticides to celebrate the day. Is that a bad thing? There are some people who'd never buy that stuff unless it was promoted heavily by places like Home Depot and Lowes.

And, by the way, having someone from Advertising Age complain about Green Advertising, is a bit like a porn star lobbying for tighter broadcast restrictions by the FCC.

Being new to treehugger, it was refreshing to see that I wasn't the only one observing this mainstream shift of the retail sector. I completely agree with fact that they are only trying to woo us into spending more money when we just need keep things longer and only buy when we absolutely need them.
I try to avoid Walmart but stopped in there tonight to pick up something I needed. I almost picked up one of their 99 cent cloth bags and then realized how retailers are shifting the cost of carrying your package out the door to the consumer for way more than the cost of some bags. Better yet, the store names are plastered on the bags and they are probably made in some third world country. Hmmm....makes you think about their motives.

at least there is some financial incentive for these massive corporations to go green. lord knows they certainly have contributed to the problem.

at least they can pretend to start helping