Editorial-My First Earth Day

I celebrated my first earth day as a freshman on a Pennsylvania college campus. I had recently joined a group, known as GECO, Gettysburg Environmental Concerns Organization, and we were celebrating the success of our most recent project. We, along with many other schools and organizations around the country, organized a letter writing campaign to the big tuna sellers demanding they stop using nets which harmed dolphins. Victory came surprisingly easy. In what seemed like no time at all, perhaps because we were late to join the effort, "dolphin safe" tuna was born.

It was on that same college campus that I first learned about global warming. We were taught it was a definite and real threat requiring immediate attention. We anticipated the environment taking center stage in the next presidential election. Why not...we had an environmentalist (Al Gore) running for VP. We assumed people would embrace the necessary changes and would fore go their gas guzzling over consumptive habits and we could put a stop to the damage a warmer climate would cause. You could say we were green in more ways than one.
That was 17 years ago! This earth day, it seems the environment has finally earned America's attention. Hollywood has at least made an attempt, to go green at this year's Oscars, organic foods are as mainstream as Walmart(for better or worse), and Wall Street is finally recognizing the profits in going green.

While we all might not be as dedicated as noimpactman, this month, in honor of Earth Day I invite you to make one change for the planet. Perhaps you'll join me in taking the "neither paper nor plastic," challenge(see post), or dump(appropriately) your chemical cleaners. If anything, I hope this blog demonstrates that there are many benefits to going green and that each step need not require a major sacrifice.





Please share your story on one positive change for the planet by commenting on this blog. Nothing is more inspiring than learning that others share your commitment to a better world.