Earth Day Roundup: Cool Things You Can Do
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.22.08
Earth Day 1970
Perhaps we are a bit blasé about Earth Day; certainly most of the Earth Day stuff in the mainstream media is old hat to TreeHugger readers. Other green sites are making a point of ignoring it completely, which is perhaps better than their crapping all over it last year. Perhaps Jasmin is right, that Earth Day is the New Christmas, and that Corporate America has co-opted and monetized it.
On the other hand, perhaps it is a useful marker on the calendar for those of us not in a green bubble, for the media, businesses, and citizens to think about things other than flag pins and mortgages. Perhaps it is useful that for this one day that everyone is a bit greener. Maybe for some it will stick.
In the mood to celebrate? Click through to check out some Earth Day activities that are actually cool.
Earth Day Activities That Don't Suck
Our fellow Discovery sites have gathered together all of their posts on green themes for the day; Discovery Health has an entire page of "great ideas to help you live well and reduce your impact on the environment." How Stuff Works has rounded up all of their environmental posts, which provide an effective introduction to environmental issues, trying (perhaps too hard) to show both sides of the story with articles like Are Climate Skeptics Right? Discovery Earthlive has a very cool interactive tool where you spin the globe and follow environmental stories around the world, with a lot of TreeHugger content. Give it a spin at ::Earthlive
The Living Sea looks a lot better on a giant IMAX screen than on a computer monitor, but it is a great movie, shot on location in the Central Pacific islands of Palau, Hawaii, Alaska , Canada , the Red Sea, California and Maine. It is an Earth Day present in the form of a free download from MacGillivray Freeman Films and MSN.
The Environmental Protection Agency has chosen this day to introduce the Energy Star Pledge, "a national campaign encouraging all Americans to join with millions of others and take small, individual steps that make a big difference in the fight against global warming." Complete with streaming video of beloved leader Stephen Johnson.
Although the prizes have been handed out to KayR for "Saw the Light, Turned it off" and Marcus Eder for "I read my porn online now," it is not too late for you to come up with your on six bon mots. I liked:
Submit your own at ::The Green Life
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- What Makes a Good Product Service System?
- Trek Embraces Chainless Bikes, Via Carbon Belt Drives
- Eco-Pop-Up Shop for Christmas
- Book Review: Ten Technologies to Save the Planet
Rather unfortunate ad currently on this page from 'we can solve it', to this Brit at least.
But if tactlessly put, perhaps a better message than the one from SJ Johnson at top (also currently), a family company who are working on making better the health of our family and the environment with... Windex, Pledge & Shout?
I kinda feel 'working on' and anything suffixed '-er' might best be kept in the 'Jobs in progress' file before splashing on the media spend, especially for Earth Day.
Lest one be accused, however unfairly, of allowing Corporate America to co-opt and monetize it.
Rather unfortunate ad currently on this page from 'we can solve it', to this Brit at least.
But if tactlessly put, perhaps a better message than the one from SJ Johnson at top (also currently), a family company who are working on making better the health of our family and the environment with... Windex, Pledge & Shout?
I kinda feel 'working on' and anything suffixed '-er' might best be kept in the 'Jobs in progress' file before splashing on the media spend, especially for Earth Day.
Lest one be accused, however unfairly, of allowing Corporate America to co-opt and monetize it.
While I applaud almost any effort to raise awareness of the issues threating our planet, I do question some.
For example, how many thousands, if not millions, of people might download this free movie (it does look spectacular) and how much coal/gas will have to be burned to power all those downloads?
Is that really the best way to celebrate Earth Day?
As for the green community underplaying Earth Day? I'm not planning anything special for my blog - Earth Day should be every day as far as I'm concerned.
But apart from that, if everyone focuses a huge push on one specific day then people will get overwhelmed or sick of hearing about the problem.
Maybe the green community have decided that a drip-feed is far more effective than an overdose.
Steve N. Lee
author of eco-blog http://www.lionsledbysheep.com
and eco-suspense thriller 'What if...?'
What a relief to read your Earth Day post. I was worried that I'm weird not wanting to take part in the commercial craze in LA, where a store, Romp, is opening on Earth Day selling "sustainable leather and fur". Kill a couple minks and foxes, buffalos and sheep as there will be some babies around somewhere and that makes it good and green? It's better to kill an organic cow for it's skin? I'm not vegan but to garnish a leather company with the green label seems perverted to me. That's not re-defining luxury that's pulling a green veil over the same old paradigm. Everybody else adds a "green corner" to their websites and hopes to get a bite of the eco cake. That's how the life changing potential of green is diluted: people munch on organic cookies and let the big guys drill for oil in wild life preserves.
I had an organic restaurant 15 years ago, plan organic weddings since 2003 and opened the first green weddings company in SoCal in 2005. It's kind of funny when the innocent small business newbies exchange sugar favors with eco favors and sell it as world saving. Green isn't just a new shopping catalogue, but a life style.
Hail to those Earth Day vendors who can make the organic bite the first step to conscious living.
Angelica Weihs
Green Weddings&Events
Los Angeles
greenweddings.net
angelicasgreenweddings.com
'Conscious Living' that is the key to this whole mess we are in!