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Earth Day 2008: Saving the Earth
starts with you, and it’s easy
By Dave Shelles
On the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, some seeds were planted for future activism.
Those seeds came in the form of tiny pine saplings, no bigger than footlong hot dogs, planted outside Apollo High School in St. Cloud, Minn., by a group of 10th-grade biology students.
It was a typically gray, rainy Midwestern spring day, April 22, 1990, when my classmates and I did our part to help the environment.
Twenty years before that was the mother of all tree-plantings. Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970, and brought forth the tree-hugging movement as we know it. Thanks to the original Earth Day, we put pressure on government to literally clean up its act. Those activities led to legislation toward that end, including the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, the watchdog for all things green.
Now we’re teetering on the brink again, and it seems only some good old-fashioned activism can help.
Around the same time my classmates and I planted our trees, the Oakland, Calif.-based R&B band Tony! Toni! Toné! released an album called “The Revival.” On the liner notes was this: “We only have 10 years to save our planet. It starts with you, and it’s easy.”
What followed were six things that are as relevant and easy now as they were then. Among them were turning off the lights when you’re not using a room, carpooling, recycling, buying environmentally sound products and pressuring lawmakers. All are things we still can do to make the world a better place.
Ride your bike or walk to get from point A to point B if it’s practical, especially for round trips of less than two miles. Reuse your grocery bags or get reusable cloth bags. At a rate of one trip to the store a week, they pay for themselves in a year and will be good for far longer than that (to say nothing of the 5 cent credit you get at the cash register for each bag used).
Whether you believe in global warming or not, what’s the harm if you walk to the grocery store? The Earth will thank you, and it just might be cleaner for your kids, and their kids, and so on. You’ll get in better shape, and your body will thank you. You’ll spend less money on gas, so your bank account will thank you.
Above all else, the next generation will thank you. Think of my tree in St. Cloud, sprouting up and providing shade and oxygen for decades to come. I haven’t visited the tree in years, but I know I did my part back then — and you can do yours now.
The decisions you make today can make a difference. And if you make the right decisions, what’s the worst that can happen?
Dave Shelles is a sports copy editor
for the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa, dshelles@qctimes.com.
starts with you, and it’s easy
By Dave Shelles
On the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, some seeds were planted for future activism.
Those seeds came in the form of tiny pine saplings, no bigger than footlong hot dogs, planted outside Apollo High School in St. Cloud, Minn., by a group of 10th-grade biology students.
It was a typically gray, rainy Midwestern spring day, April 22, 1990, when my classmates and I did our part to help the environment.
Twenty years before that was the mother of all tree-plantings. Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970, and brought forth the tree-hugging movement as we know it. Thanks to the original Earth Day, we put pressure on government to literally clean up its act. Those activities led to legislation toward that end, including the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, the watchdog for all things green.
Now we’re teetering on the brink again, and it seems only some good old-fashioned activism can help.
Around the same time my classmates and I planted our trees, the Oakland, Calif.-based R&B band Tony! Toni! Toné! released an album called “The Revival.” On the liner notes was this: “We only have 10 years to save our planet. It starts with you, and it’s easy.”
What followed were six things that are as relevant and easy now as they were then. Among them were turning off the lights when you’re not using a room, carpooling, recycling, buying environmentally sound products and pressuring lawmakers. All are things we still can do to make the world a better place.
Ride your bike or walk to get from point A to point B if it’s practical, especially for round trips of less than two miles. Reuse your grocery bags or get reusable cloth bags. At a rate of one trip to the store a week, they pay for themselves in a year and will be good for far longer than that (to say nothing of the 5 cent credit you get at the cash register for each bag used).
Whether you believe in global warming or not, what’s the harm if you walk to the grocery store? The Earth will thank you, and it just might be cleaner for your kids, and their kids, and so on. You’ll get in better shape, and your body will thank you. You’ll spend less money on gas, so your bank account will thank you.
Above all else, the next generation will thank you. Think of my tree in St. Cloud, sprouting up and providing shade and oxygen for decades to come. I haven’t visited the tree in years, but I know I did my part back then — and you can do yours now.
The decisions you make today can make a difference. And if you make the right decisions, what’s the worst that can happen?
Dave Shelles is a sports copy editor
for the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa, dshelles@qctimes.com.
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