Happy Earth Day 2010!

“We must make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for civilization.” – Al Gore.

In honor of Earth Day, I’m hoping to take a break from boring you all with my extremely exciting life (I know, reading about every season I’ve played kickball is truly enthralling) and focus on some environmental issues. There are tons of exciting Earth Day activities going on in DC today and this coming weekend. One of the largest displays will be the Climate Rally held on Sunday, April 25th. I’m hoping to get out and check it out for a bit (you should too), so look for a recap on Monday!

So what exactly is Earth Day?

Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. It was founded by US Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in held April 22, 1970.

How can you help?

Just as there are numerous ways we destroy the planet, so are there a plethora of ways we can help. These are a few simple things we can do as suggested by the Earth Day campaign:

• Educate people to use solar power
• Recycle
• Shop at the local farmers market, using your own bags and eat as many locally sources meals as possible
• Ride a bike
• Reduce your electricity usage

From now on, each week, I will try and focus on one thing we can all do to help make a positive impact on the environment and life more sustainable lifestyles. Maybe it can be our weekly goal. So, since the weather is getting nicer, I propose we try and not use our cars (including cabs) for a week. If you live in a public transportation rich city like DC (despite the sometimes malfunctioning metro system) this shouldn't be that hard. While it's not always possible, it's something to strive for. I hope to post these each Sunday or Monday as a challenge for the week, so I'll update you on my progress.

Why should I care?
When Earth day began, pollution was rampant and it was visible. We could see the smog and the gross rivers. And while we've made lots of improvements along the way, there are still major problems that are going undetected and unnoticed because, while not as visible, are equally as damaging.

Right now I’m reading Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle by David Wann. I’ll share some of the interesting and sometimes shocking highlights. Wann explains that not only is it essential that we change the way we live in order to survive on limited natural resources that are naturally depleting, we will come to find that this lifestyle is even richer and more fulfilling than our crazy, fast-paced , yet wasteful current lifestyle.
“Real wealth is the calmness and contentedness that comes with feeling good, physically; the sense of well being that makes anything seem like an event. Real wealth is finding the rhythm of natural cycles and jumping in. It’s understanding how the world works and substituting information and brilliant design for resources."

Now, for some alarming facts:
We are already experiencing environmental catastrophe. We can fix this, but we have to accept that there are major problems. “For example, some eastern cities ran out of landfill space years ago and are now begging neighboring states to take their waste. (New York City alone ships 600 tractor-trailers out of state every single day.) “ I mean EW, that is just gross. Not to mention holy shit, I can’t imagine that much trash, what are we doing!?

“The average American’s ‘ecological footprint’ (the land needed to provide the materials supporting his or her lifestyle) is 30 acres, or roughly thirty football fields of prime land and sea, year after year—which is roughly twice what the average Italian or German thrives on.” If others can do with less, obviously we can do. And also, since land and seas are finite. We are basically using up in a few generations the resources that have taken eons to produce. Wanns likens this to temporarily going insane and gambling your life savings in a single casino spree. And that is exactly what we are currently doing.

Just some thoughts to ponder on this Earth Day. Now get out there and plant a tree! Or take a ride on the Orange Line (note to self: must leave kickball early enough to catch mass transit this week). This will both save the environment and my death-warmed-over-due-to-lack-of-sleep appearance tomorrow at work as well. Win, win!

And the Oscar Goes To....Flipper!

Ever since I was a little kid, I have been interested in the environment. My conservative parents must have shuddered in horror when I took up "greening" our home by obsessively sticking bricks in toilets to save water and cutting up the plastic soda rings so an innocent duck's little head wouldn't get stuck. I wasn't a complete hippie ("let it mellow if its yellow" was not in my vocabulary), but I did have a passion. I think this may have stemmed from my grandmother's environmental pursuits living at the beach; cleaning up and beautifying the beach and helping those tiny baby turtles make that treacherous trek to the ocean each year. I had so much enthusiasm for this as a child, but over the years, lost it somehow. I guess that's what happens when selfish teenage hormones take over and all you care about is who will ask you to the homecoming dance and why did your crush blow you off between 1st and 2nd period last week? I digress.

Anyways, once you hit that inevitable quarter life crises and start questioning your place in the world (is my purpose reallly to play kickball and flipcup the rest of my days?) things that you valued as child start cropping up again. As a child you were full of dreams and the I-can-accomplish anything attitude. You had hopes, ideas and the desire to make this world a better place. You were not yet pushed down by the reality of the world, finances and naysayers. But lately, as I begin to think about where I'm headed and what I want to do with my life, I think, why not? Why not pursue those interests and passions that have really always stayed with us from innocent children. Sure, we may have turned out as the less-than-perfect adult version of ourselves than we imagined at the age of 10, but that doesn't mean growth doesn't continue to happen.

As such, I hope to embrace this passion I had for the environment all those years ago. I mean there was something seriously going on in my head when I thought it was perfectly acceptable to take a picture with a SeaWorld dolphin trainer (whom I aspired to be someday) and show it to my friends, telling them that she was my cousin. As if, because she was my cousin - and not some complete stranger-this made me cooler and closer to becoming a dolphin trainer than her being a perfect stranger. This is just how my brain works I guess.

Although I long ago gave up on the dream of becoming trainer to THE BEST ANIMAL in the world, I hope to dive (pun intended) back into the world of environmentalism in any way I can. Luckily, I live in DC, the advocacy capitol of the country, so I am able to take advantage of events such as the Environmental Film Festival, which presents 155 diverse and thought-provoking films that celebrate the wonder of the natural world and illuminate the growing challenges to life on earth.

This year's festival specifically explores the connections between food and the environment. Food, environment and movies...the only thing missing here is alcohol, but count me in! Also, anything involving Philippe Cousteau (my obsession about Jacques is another post entirely) will entice even the most ardent hating tree hugger (c'mon, he's HOT.)

So if you live in DC, check out some of the movies that are playing at various venues through March 28.

Happy Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! Earth Day here in the nation's capitol started off rainy, turned sunny, I think rainy again, and finally sunnier, but much cooler. It was a weird weather day, is the earth trying to tell us something? Anyways, I'd like to say that I did something to help the environment today, but other than tossing my empty wine bottle into the recycling bin after dinner, and watching some documentary on sick killer whales on PBS right now, I can't say I contributed much.

However, my roommate was telling me about an book that would fit right into the earth day theme: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. I haven't read any of her books, but have heard great praise for them. The book is about Kingsolver and her families decision to buy only food raise in their own neighborhood or food they grew themselves. Writing about home-grown lettuce doesn't sound that intriguing, but the fact that she could read about it for pages without completely losing her mind kinda shows to me Kingsolver is a damn good writer.

My roomie even decided to stop by the farmer's market today to try and buy some locally grown produce - things that were in season for this area. Unfortunately, she could only find spinach from CA. I guess that defeats the purpose of cutting down on environmental waste by shipping it halfway across the country. Later, at Whole Foods, they had apples imported from Brazil. Oh well, at least she tried....all thanks to motivation from a book!