What is Earth Day? A holiday created to inspire awareness and appreciation for our natural environment in those who might not consider such matters during the rest of the year. Am I the only one who finds it ironic that those who might observe Earth Day are the very ones who already understand and appreciate nature? No matter… who wants to be a Grinch on a holiday anyway? If you’re looking for fun ways to observe Earth Day anywhere on Earth, the tastefully-named Geof Rochester at The Nature Conservancy has you covered.
Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.
Mike, Actually, most people involved in the environment/conservation field would agree that Earth Day has been a tremendous success in bringing environmental awareness to the general public, and that it has fundamentally changed to conscience and politics of our nation. Here is an historical review by my own employer, the U.S. EPA: http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/earthday/02.htm Whether Earth Day has the same impact today as it did back when it was conceived in 1970 is a matter of much discussion. But in today’s information-saturated world, it is difficult to believe that any one event could have. Regardless of who participates, those that are involved in environment and conservation should continue to celebrate and reinvigorate our message. Thanks for bringing the message to 10,000 Birds.
The first Earth Day I remember being aware of was back in high school. I made the girl who was driving stop the car so I could help a box turtle across the road. The other girls were all set to make fun of me, but they came around when I asked them how it would feel if THEY were run over by a car. 🙂
Seth, thanks for raising that point. I agree with you, but get a little crabby around Earth Day. The year everyone else in NY celebrated the day with a big party in Central Park, I was in Westchester planting a cranberry bog!
Susan, you’ve always been a scrapper, haven’t you? 🙂
Well, YEAH.