Today, April 22, is Earth Day in the United States.
Home Depot stores celebrated last weekend by giving away CFL light bulbs, and the company has a special Web page explaining their “Eco Options” logo to help consumers identify more energy-efficient products. President Barack Obama will celebrate by pushing a huge energy bill that could dramatically cut carbon emissions (by up to 83 percent by 2050, according to National Public Radio this morning), but about whose economic consequences Republicans are issuing dire warnings.
My personal Earth Day observance
How will I celebrate? Well, most likely by continuing to do what we always do, and trying to do it a little bit better. I’m sitting here, writing in natural light; I have a load of laundry in the washer (in cold water), and will hang it out to dry later. I’ll try not to drive too much, although I have a meeting to attend and a friend to meet later today.
In the past few weeks, we’ve taken a few steps to strengthen our little corner of Earth by planting three new trees in our yard (a pear tree and two apple trees) and moving toward converting some of our pavement to plantings in the back yard.
I remember first hearing about Earth Day in college, when celebrations started to grow following the 20th anniversary of the first formal Earth Day observance in 1970. At that time, I was part of a campus environmental group, Earth Coalition, and had been a vegetarian for a year or so.
It’s ironic, of course, that the environmental movement started just as industrialism was gaining momentum and people were having a greater impact on the Earth than ever. Many of our individual paths probably reflect that disparity — I’m sure I had less impact on the planet as a college student than I do today. I didn’t buy much, because I didn’t have any money; I lived in one room in a dorm instead of a single-family home; I didn’t own a car for years and so walked everywhere or took public transit. I didn’t think a lot about environmentalism all the time, because I lived it.
What would great-grandma do?
Our great-grandparents didn’t need an Earth Day. Environmentalism, for most people, was the default setting. They didn’t have cars, or maybe just one. Hanging out laundry was a no-brainer, and many of them were still washing laundry with a wringer washer. Food was not shipped from around the globe; they ate what they had — that’s why an orange at Christmas was a big treat. In our great-grandparents’ generation or shortly earlier, most people still had just one pair of shoes, or maybe a couple, perhaps saved for special occasions. They made their own clothes, greeting cards and gifts. They shared homes. They raised chickens and likely walked to a local market, or saved shopping for one big trip for necessities. “Carbon miles” was not an issue, because people generally grew where they were planted.
Is life better now? In so many ways, yes. We have lifesaving surgeries and vaccinations that prevent horrible diseases; clean drinking water and all the entertainment we can stand (and more!). We know about the world’s many cultures and can go see them in person; if a family member moves far away, we no longer must bid farewell, not knowing if we’ll ever speak to our loved one again.
What’s the solution?
The argument, of course, is that we’ve gone too far with the technology, energy, convenience.
I’d like to celebrate Earth Day by taking a moment to honor what we have in common with our ancestors’ simpler lives, and then recommitting to honor that simplicity all year.
I suppose this is the old “think globally, act locally” slogan. But really it’s thinking locally, acting locally, and realizing that our actions affect a much bigger world.
I’m going to take a walk, watch the birds at my feeder, and maybe take some extra time to appreciate them and the world we live in. (We found this great site for learning to recognize bird songs, at least in North America.)
How will you celebrate today?
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Comments ( 6 )
For me, everyday is Earth day. I have a front loading washing machine and I don’t own a dryer but I do own a hybrid car. I have begun making my own laundry soap which works extremely well with no chemicals at all, and it is the best toilet bowl cleaner I have used. I make my own toothpaste and I use vinegar in the rinse cycles of my clothes and dish washers. I wash my hair with a “no-poo” shampoo and when all the other chemically laden cleaning supplies currently in my home are used up I will make my own new supplies. I am growing a vegetable garden and will be using as much harvested water from my roof as I can,and am considering keeping chickens. Ms. Cheap, have you decided for or against keeping your own chickens?
Patricia added these pithy words on
Apr 22 09 at
9:28 am
@Patricia – Great idea to use laundry soap as toilet bowl cleaner! I haven’t tried that.
As for the chickens … that’s a good question. I had decided against, mostly because I want to be able to travel and not worry about them, and I don’t want to find fox-created carnage in the yard one day, and what will we do with them when they stop laying? Now we are paying a fortune for organic eggs from our CSA, and we no longer have the dog that was bigger than a chicken to worry about. And the idea of chickens keeps popping up. So: The jury remains out at this point.
Cheap Like Me added these pithy words on
Apr 22 09 at
10:30 am
Actually, our great-grandparents probably needed an Earth Day even more than we did. There were a lot fewer environmental constraints on industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries, so factories, tanneries, mines, and slaughterhouses just dumped their waste. Coal was the default fuel, and it left a deposit of soot everywhere; as late as 1952, London had a “killer smog” due to coal smoke combined with unfortunate weather conditions. When I was growing up, in the 1960s and 1970s, my family in Ireland still burned coal in their kitchen stove and in open fireplaces, and I will never forget the smell.
Also, people were not as aware of the dangers of lead, mercury, and asbestos, and tainted food was common—remember, The Jungle was published in 1906.
Today we have much more regulation of air, water, and ground pollution (even if enforcement is not aways what we would like), we have less heavy industry in this country (although much of it has been outsourced to other countries), and we have more energy-efficient cars, furnaces, and factories.
On a day-to-day basis, our grandparents may have had fewer things, but on the macro level, our lives are much greener than they were 100 years ago, and even on a day-to-day basis, we no longer use lead paint, burn coal, or dump our waste water into the river, so we may be living greener now as well.
Brigid added these pithy words on
Apr 22 09 at
10:55 am
Brigid, great points! I would say I was speaking firmly in the “micro.” And I suspect a lot of that is economic … the poorer among us have always reused and made do; the richer have the luxury of buying our way to whatever trend we see.
Cheap Like Me added these pithy words on
Apr 22 09 at
1:36 pm
I love the idea of looking backwards in order to obtain wisdom. I always say that these people ‘invented’ green – i.e. most of the ‘green’ ideas we have today are simply old fashioned living tips! Having said that, if you look too deeply, they are spraying their homes with DDT and other chemicals and as the comment above outlines, there was no respect for the environment.
Our family are on a quest to combine the best of then and the best of now. I like to make my own bread, but I like to ‘google’ the best recipes! LOL
BusyWoman added these pithy words on
Apr 22 09 at
3:14 pm
I was a historical reenactor for 8 year so like Brigid, I understand that not all of the old ways are the best greenest ways. I KNOW what it’s like to live without electricity and that’s not something I’d like to do full time but like BusyWoman I DO want to learn how to use it less of it to get more done. I love my electric bread machine
Condo Blues added these pithy words on
Apr 22 09 at
5:25 pm
