Earth Day

So what’s with Earth Day? Seems it was started as an educational event in the States during the 70s, spread internationally in 1990 and in 2009 was officially recognized by the United Nations. There are now Earth Day events in more than 175 countries. That is some impressive marketing and networking!

I’m all for environmental awareness and green initiatives. I had Earth Day marked in my calendar, but when today arrived I realized I didn’t actually know what Earth Day is. Perhaps it is, like most things, what you make of it.

I could've gone to an Earth Day party tonight at a cool local yarn store since I contributed to an Earth Day window display organized by the store, Wabi Sabi, and CPAWS - the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. The pictures in this blog are from that display – a very impressive collection of hand-crafted animals and birds. My bird is very sad – in the bottom picture it’s the brown knitted bird that is doing a face plant into the branch. (I’m surprised it even made it into the display, given the artistry shown by the other contributors.)

But knitted birds aside, should I be doing something more to mark Earth Day? I feel like I should have planted a tree or collected garbage on the side of a highway. I’m ashamed to admit that I barely even spent any time outdoors today. (V had the day off work, so he joined M and I at the seniors – nice for him to get to see what it is we do each week and meet a few of the residents. M was a big hit as usual and there was a new resident she connected well with.)

In the afternoon V cleaned the eaves troughs on the garage – which maybe we could spin as an Earth Day activity since it’s all part of the plan to put in a rain barrel – but sadly I was indoors typing away, burning energy.

We do continue to try and do our part – cfl bulbs, cloth grocery bags, composting, recycling, gardening, buying local, cloth diapering, etc. If you look at it that way, any day can be Earth Day.