Image: NASA

On its 39th anniversary, Earth Day still feels vital to me, but I know that some of you out there think that its time has passed. Every day should be Earth Day, you say. Choosing just one, single day to say you care about the planet we call home — what good is that?

The first Earth Day came at the end of a decade in which social activism drove this nation’s political agenda. Moved by a desire to create that better world, we got together to fight for change the only way a large group of like-minded people could: we laced up our shoes and walked side-by-side. When you have to get together in person, well, you obviously need a specific day to meet up. And that day turned out to be Wednesday, April 29, 1970.

Some of us who fought for this country’s first environmental protections make the mistake of assuming that because young people today are less likely to be found marching down the National Mall as the shopping mall, that they must not care as deeply as we did when we were young. But apathy has not replaced idealism. Idealism just looks a little different these days.

This generation uses new tools to express itself and influence political decisions. They connect with one another in more ways than we could have imagined back in 1970: blogs, email petitions, YouTube videos, Twitter and Facebook. They’re finding new ways to express their political views, and they do it every second of every day.

Lately, I’ve come around to their way of thinking. I’m still standing up for environmental protections for the places I hold dear, but like so many of today’s new activists, I’ve hung up my marching boots and taken to the blogosphere. You’ll find me expressing my views at the Huffington Post, NRDC’s Greenlight, and Sundance Channel.

So what good is Earth Day? It’s a day that reminds us to take a stand every day and fight for the places we hold dear. So today, pause for a moment and take full advantage of the unprecedented array of tools we have for connecting with others and expressing our views. Speak up on Facebook, or Twitter, or go one step further and join me at NRDC’s Greenlight. In today’s world, you’re a reporter too. Stand up for the people, creatures, and lands that inspire you to protect the environment. Reach out and tell the world about what’s happening in the places you hold dear. Make your voices heard.

Earth Day provides us with an opportunity to both reflect and act on our desire to use the planet’s resources in a sustainable manner. As we’ve noted in numerous posts, water may be the one resource we should focus on more, individually and collectively. No doubt, many of you have water-saving activities planned; a few of you may already be at work installing low-flow shower heads, faucet aerators, or even rain barrels.

Rain water harvesting makes a lot of sense: the initial investment can be quite low (especially if you do it yourself), and your plants love rain water.  Unfortunately, as Rachelle Carson Begley once noted, an awful lot of commercially-available rain barrels are, well, ugly.

Illinois-based company Aquascape has developed a solution to rain barrel eyesore — its RainXchange system. Rather than a barrel attached to a downspout, RainXchange is a modified cistern with a filtering mechanism. That all gets buried; you and visitors see an attractive water feature. And, you can connect a hose to a spigot, and shower your plants with fresh, bacteria-free rainwater. The system doesn’t require much space: a local contractor told me a 6′x6′ area will work fine. No doubt this costs more than traditional systems, but if you’re just not feeling the whole plastic barrel look, it’s an option.

Know of other systems that make rainwater harvesting more aesthetically pleasing? Let us know in the comments… and Happy Earth Day!

Image courtesy of Aquascape.

If there’s a problem in your area or if you are working to solve a problem in your community we’re interested to learn more. We want Eco-mmunity to be a place where users can find one another, share information and hopefully solve problems together.

Simran Sethi’s upcoming original web series, THE GOOD FIGHT, is devoted to building awareness for the rapidly growing field of environmental justice. THE GOOD FIGHT launches on Earth Day, April 22nd, and will include a multi-media mix of webisodes, blogs and podcasts that will confront issues of sustainability and their varied affects on diverse types of people and communities.

We will be visiting the LOS ANGELES AREA soon and are looking for Eco-mmunity members and groups to feature in THE GOOD FIGHT. Here’s your shot to get the word out about what you’re doing! So tell us your story! Add a “green action needed” marker for yourself or group on the Eco-mmunity Map [www.sundancechannel.com]. We will be scouring map markers from the LA area for story ideas. This is a great opportunity to build awareness for your cause, group or work. But even if you don’t live in Los Angeles don’t despair. The best markers added to the Eco-mmunity Map will be included in THE GOOD FIGHT map marker group. We will be promoting this group throughout the spring and summer and hope that increased awareness of your story will translate into support and real world problem solving.

You can find THE GOOD FIGHT WEBSITE here [www.sundancechannel.com] starting April 18th, 2008.

“Climate change has no boundaries and we all have a shared stake,” commented Sethi. “THE GOOD FIGHT” is an attempt to illuminate areas people may not have considered in regards to environmentalism, such as water access, architecture and green-collared jobs. We’ve been made aware of saving the whales, saving the trees—we also need to be saving our communities,”

THE GOOD FIGHT will feature interviews and videos on a range of environmental justice issues. To give you a flavor of things to come, Sethi meets with local residents of Greensburg, Kansas, a farming community that was nearly decimated by a tornado in 2007, to hear their hopes and plans as they rebuild as a “green town”. Sethi will also interview activists and leading thinkers in the movement including: Robert Bullard, father of environmental justice and director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, Omar Freilla, expert in the green-collar economy and creator of The Green Worker Cooperative in the Bronx and Clayton Thomas Muller, the indigenous oil campaign organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Here’s how to add yourself to the Eco-mmunity Map:

1) Login to Sundance Channel [www.sundancechannel.com].

2) Click “View/Add Green Markers” button located in your member profile area [www.sundancechannel.com] and create a “green action needed” map marker. The writing in the marker should relate to circumstances or events directly related to the local community or region. Make sure to place the marker as close as possible to the actual site or area where the real life problem exists.

3) Be sure to include appropriate email and or phone number contact information so Sundance Channel can contact you.

4) Include “Environmental Justice: (Title of your story)” as the first part of your marker’s title.

5) Indicate whether you have or can get images that can paint a picture of the environmental justice issue you are describing.

6) Enter a website link if there is one applicable to the story you are submitting.

7) As only the best markers will be selected for follow up by our team, try to add as much detail as you can in the marker itself. Try to focus on describing the problem in the most objective fashion, although some degree of emotional intensity will obviously be natural in these stories.

This is your chance to shine a light on a problem that has probably been ignored for too long, so seize the moment!

AUSTIN, Texas, January 21, 2008 (ENS) – Whole Foods Market announced today that it will end the use of disposable plastic grocery bags at the checkouts in all of its 270 stores in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. with the goal to be free of plastic bags by Earth Day, April 22, 2008.

“Central to Whole Foods Market’s core values is caring for our communities and the environment, and this includes adopting wise environmental practices,” said A.C. Gallo, co-president and chief operating officer for Whole Foods Market.

“More and more cities and countries are beginning to place serious restrictions on single-use plastic shopping bags since they don’t break down in our landfills, can harm nature by clogging waterways and endangering wildlife, and litter our roadsides,” Gallo said.

The first U.S. supermarket to commit to completely eliminating disposable plastic grocery bags to help protect the environment and conserve resources, Whole Foods Market has declared today “Bring Your Own Bag Day.

The company gave out 50,000 reusable shopping bags to customers at the checkouts this morning to celebrate the announcement. “We hope to inspire shoppers to prompt positive environmental change by adopting the reusable bag mindset,” said Gallo.

“Together with our shoppers, our gift to the planet this Earth Day will be reducing our environmental impact as we estimate we will keep 100 million new plastic grocery bags out of our environment between Earth Day and the end of this year alone,” he said.

“Doing away with plastic grocery bags won’t just help protect marine life, it’s a key move in shifting us away from a ‘consume-and-dispose’ mentality,” says Lisa Mastny, editor of the Worldwatch Institute report “Oceans in Peril.”

“Disposable plastic bags can linger in the environment for more than 1,000 years and are the major debris item found on the seabed, especially near the coast,” she said.

“During our International Coastal Cleanup each year, our volunteers find hundreds of thousands of bags on beaches and in the ocean posing a threat to birds, turtles and other marine life,” said Laura Capps, senior vice president of communications and outreach with Ocean Conservancy.

“We applaud Whole Foods Market for encouraging their customers to bring re-usable bags when shopping and for making better stewardship of our environment a part of their everyday lives,” said Capps.

“Before Whole Foods Market decided to do away with this disposable plastic grocery bags at our checkouts, we ran tests in San Francisco, Toronto and Austin. Customers have overwhelmingly supported the plastic bag ban initiated by Whole Foods Market in these cities and applauded the progressive stance the stores have taken,” said Gallo.

Although the company hopes to inspire shoppers to bring their own reusable bags, 100 percent recycled paper grocery bags will still be offered at checkout.

Last year, Whole Foods Market became the first and only food retailer in North America to offer these recycled paper grocery bags made with 100 percent recycled fiber content.

Whole Foods Market stores have begun using all-natural fiber packaging at salad and food bars. The fibers for the new containers come from plants that are cultivated or grow wild and are harvested annually. Additionally, the company continues to seek alternatives to plastic bags in its bulk, produce, bakery and seafood departments.

View This Story On Eco-mmunity Map.

It’s two days after Earth Day, and that means we want to keep you talking about the environmental movement. There is no better way to get people excited about a topic than through a little green humor.

During the filming of BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET, we recorded a number of interviews that ended up having a few funny moments. Below you will find two clips of out-takes from an interview with “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” star, Carson Kressley. Let see what he thinks about man’s future on earth after Global Warming takes it’s toll.

Becoming a civilization of “sea monkies” could be the future of humanity unless we decide to stop the rising sea levels caused by Global Warming and save the planet, and we may want to avoid that fate because it would probably be pretty hard to grow bananas in the ocean.

The second clip from Kressley exposes another evacuation destination for humanity, and where else but the moon!

I suppose one of the benefits of living on the moon would be great sleep. With less gravity, there would be less tossing and turning, so you could just float in one spot assuming you had some type of harness to keep yourself from floating out of bed.

On another note, environmentalism or “GREEN” discussions can often be devoid of humor. If you feel you can help increase the fun factor of environmental topics, please make use of our discussion boards [www.sundancechannel.com]. I am sure everyone will appreciate the good feelings humor can bring to the the environmental movement. We are not about doom and gloom here–we are all about solutions!

This coming Sunday (April 22) is Earth Day, which, you may be thinking, is a holiday tailor-made for TreeHuggers and other greenies everywhere, but TreeHugger has an interesting relationship with Earth Day. On the one hand, it’s great that there’s a day dedicated to bringing the world together to make our Earth a greener, healthier place to be. On the other hand, one day isn’t nearly enough to do everything that needs to be done, and we don’t want folks to think that they can worry about the planet for a day and then forget about it for another year. Aside from that, we shouldn’t need an excuse to all do something positive for our world; however, it makes sense that to mobilize a large group of people, in many locales around the globe, we need to get it on the calendar, so everyone can plan on it. And back and forth we go.

Despite this internal struggle, Earth Day is still an overwhelmingly positive thing, and TreeHugger is excited that it’s here. More than ever, there are ways to be involved and take action, no matter your political, professional or ideological persuasion. The Earthday Network [www.earthday.net] (whose tagline promises “Earth Day for everybody”) has info and resources for Earth Day on Capitol Hill for those who interested in taking the fight for the Earth right to the top; for less activism-oriented folks, they ask you to change a lightbulb [action.earthday.net]. To find an event, big or small, political or personal, near you, click on over to the Earth Day 2007 [www.earthday.net] section of their website. They really have something for everyone.

If getting out and rubbing elbows with your neighbors and friends (and maybe hugging a tree or two) is too much, or you prefer to start thinking globally by making a few changes at home, TreeHugger has put together a handy Earth Day guide [www.treehugger.com], where you’ll find quick, easy ideas and tips for making your lifestyle a little greener. Included in the guide are tips for things like saving water (with a low-flow showerhead, by practicing TreeHugger-friendly dishwashing, that kind of thing) and saving energy (change a lightbulb, cut back on phantom energy, just to name a few) that you can do and still have time for a walk in the park on Sunday afternoon. No matter what you do on Sunday, TreeHugger urges you to think of the planet first, and have a green day!