Earth Day 2008

Earth Day is exactly a week from today! The purpose of Earth Day, which is on April 22, is to provide information about and raise awareness of the Earth's environment, pollution and other environmental problems, resource use, and how to get involved in helping to protect our resources at a community level.

The best way to help our environment and celebrate Earth Day is to tell people to vote. We desperately need new environmental policy in this country, as even our current President has begun to realize.

Senator Obama has promised that when he is elected he will devote himself to reducing carbon emissions 80% by 2050 by implementing a "cap and trade" system(cap emissions with pollution credits that can be auctioned off), similar to those in other developed nations. The money from the sale of the credits will be used for environmental clean-up and protection. He also plans to address the issue of deforestation, invest in clean energy, increase funding for environmental research and technology, and more. Here is a link to his entire plan.

History of Earth Day, courtesy of Wikipedia:
"In September 1969, at a conference in Seattle, Washington, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment. Senator Nelson first proposed the nationwide environmental protest to thrust the environment onto the national agenda.” "It was a gamble," he recalls, "but it worked." Five months before the first April 22 Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the rising tide of environmental events::

"Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam...a national day of observance of environmental problems...is being planned for next spring...when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in'...coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned...." Senator Nelson also hired Denis Hayes as the coordinator.

"Each year, the April 22 Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Among other things, 1970 in the United States brought with it the Kent State shootings, the advent of fiber optics, "Bridge over Troubled Water," Apollo 13, the Beatles' last album, the death of Jimi Hendrix, and the meltdown of fuel rods in the Savannah River nuclear plant near Aiken, South Carolina -- an incident not acknowledged for 18 years. At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Environment was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news. But Earth Day 1970 turned that all around.

On April 22, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values."

I'll be at Dandelion Communitea from 4-6 p.m. ("an exciting day of music, educational speakers, sustainable vendors and more in celebration and awareness of Earth Day"), and on Sunday I'm planning to join the Lake Lotus Earth Day invasive plant removal event in Altamonte Springs. It would be great to see a few more familiar faces out there (and of course an Obama pin/t-shirt or two)! The details can be found here.

Other Earth Day events/info/fun:

~YouTube Contest~

~Will Ferrel Bush impersonation, global warming~

~Earth Day Network~

~Current National Policy/ Legislation~

*P.S. Please vote for the most convenient day/time for our bi-monthly group meetings (see below)*

Happy Tuesday,
Necole