Happy Birthday Earth! You don't look a day over 4 billion

This Earth Day was probably the most involved I've ever been in the event. I do have this class to thank for that, but I've always observed it in one way or another. This year I actually got my three other roomates to agree to pick up a free lightbulb from Home Depot. It's about the most I could ask from them. I continued with my vegan dieting, save for some crickets I ate, and made the subject of the Earth my topic of conversation with whatever friends I happened to encounter.

(If you couldn't tell by that last little line, I was part of the group that researched and presented the Edible Insects booth for Earth Day. Some of the most fun I've ever had on a class project!)

I think Earth Day is a good thing. People I talk to dislike how commercialized it's become, like Christmas or Easter, but is it really bad to buy green? And this economy can use all the stimulus it can get. Buying Chinese toys made of plastic and which will probably get less than a month's use out of seems counter-productive to grabbing a cloth grocery bag, a flourescent lightbulb, or a reuseable water bottle. Earth Day is also something the whole planet can celebrate. You can't say that about any of the religious holidays.

Is Earth Day necessary? I'll say yes. For now. In a perfect world everyone would be aware of the plight of the environment and global climate change, but nothing's ever perfect, and public awareness is biased by the constant presence of the media. When you have schools promoting Earth Day, children get exposed to something they might not otherwise learn about. There are parents today that don't have time to teach their children anything, let alone that our ecosystems are disappearing. And when those children go home and tell their parents what they did that day in school, maybe the parents will learn a thing or two.

Let's hope that some day Earth Day disappears, but only because we've started treating every day, like Earth Day.