E is for Earth Day--A Billion Acts of Green

I’m old enough to remember when Earth Day was a joke.  It was.  As teachers, many of us said, “Oh, yeah.  Earth Day.  I’d better do something, I guess.”  Not anymore.  Earth Day has a global platform and big teeth.  And it should.  Caring for our planet is no laughing matter.  It is a deadly serious concern.

 Earth Day, founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson, was first organized in 1970 to promote ecology and respect for life on the plane.  It has come a long way from then with one hundred forty countries around the globe participating this year.  And counting.  Earth Day, very much like Earth Hour, has taken on a life of its own.

 

So what in the world can we do to help?  The smallest thing adds up to a billion acts of green! I’ve pledge to not use plastic bags, to using cold water in the washing machine and to using earth friendly cleaning products.  We’ve changed all light bulbs to save electricity, and they are turned off when leaving a room.  I remind students when doing a book signing that turning off a light helps save a polar bear!

But it’s more than these things, isn’t it?  Helping save our planet is really a state of mind.  It’s being in the flow of good ecology every day, even every minute. And soon, it’s a way of life. 

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Living this state of mind will help save all our lives and the lives of those to come, our children and our grandchildren. What better ongoing gift can we give to anyone than a sustainable, green and whole planet?  Oh, and it’s not, of course, just April 22.  It’s every minute, every day for the rest of our lives.

Earth Hour--March 26, 2010--Let's Help Beyond the Hour!

From 8:30 to 9:30 PM tonight local time, March 26, 2011, much of our planet will collectively go dark to display support of protecting our home, the earth.  We are asked to darken our homes for that hour and only leave on a few lights (if you are home) for safety reasons.

This year more that 4,000 cities in 131 countries and territories have signed up to participate in this important event, which is sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund.  Even the Las Vegas Strip will go dark for the hour!  The Earth Hour organization has a new platform with a new web address to go with it.  It is:  http://www.earthhour.org/Homepage.aspx

Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia in 2007 when only two thousand business went dark as a symbolic gesture against global warming.  Tonight, much of our globe will darken in a gesture of respectful solidarity for our planet.

Earth Hour has done a lot to raise awareness of sustainability issues. But there’s more to it than switching off lights for one hour once a year. It’s about all of us working together to create a better future for our planet.  As their slogan says:

This Earth Hour, Go Beyond the Hour

Earth Hour 2011 Official Video from WWF on Vimeo.