Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Earth Day? It’s Earth Day?

Here in Texas you would hardly know.

Back when I was just a young pup, Earth Day was a day of teach-ins. It was when we educated ourselves about the population explosion, extinctions of species, and the effects, health-wise and others, of water, air, and noise pollution. Back then we had no idea that the Earth’s atmosphere was heating up. We were becoming aware that human civilization was affecting areas that humans do not live and have not lived, but the notion that our carbon emissions would impact the average temperature of Earth’s atmosphere was something for science fiction.

Ironically, Earth Day is celebrated now. It was a solemn observation, now it’s an occasion for a party.

Look around the state. In Forth Worth children used chalk rags and yarn to produce a huge mural of Earth that could only be viewed from the sky. Hopefully, the clean up has been accomplished with minimal impact on the environment. Chalk is a good buffer, but if something goes chemically wrong, what you have is carbonic acid.

In Cypress, Texas they had a nice Sunday concert with an acoustic guitarist, and then a nice Earth Day sermon; then children planted a mulberry tree. Now if only they can round up some silkworms.

They planted trees in Killeen, Texas as well.

At Fort Hood they are going to hold a festival with music, food, inflatables and gas-efficient vehicles on display.

In Sugar Land, Texas Earth Day was preceded by “Environmental Week” that included an “Eco-Car Show” and music in a park, and also hosting a Recycling Event (limits on items accepted and charges may apply).

And, oh yes, Google celebrated Earth Day with a special screen. Cute, huh? If you click on the “Green Google” logo you get web results on the keywords earth or day.

It was actually nicer when they called this day Arbor Day. That way there was a one to one correlation between the festivity and the activity. The way it is now, an uninformed person would be hard-pressed to figure out just what we Americans, we Texans, were supposed to be doing today.

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