Earth Day Birthday -OR- A Planet Holds Its Breath

Talk about your abusive relationships. Torture? Rape? Neglect?
It's great that we're thinking Green. It's all the rage.
It's just too bad that when Green meets $$$$GREEN$$$$, or convenience or privilege,
Green takes it on the chin.

If it's not the arrogant and ignant, it's the extremists on both sides. And then there's the religious versions of all of the above whose interpretation of stewardship lets them do just about anything as their birthright.

A consumer driven disposable society... hey everybody does it, the earth's been around longer than us. It can take care of itself? Well yeah, maybe if you let her catch her breath.

We've come up with ways to literally BUY your way around the pollution issue. Way to go America! That oughta fix everything...tomorrow. This is the 39th "official" Earth Day. Perhaps its most commericially viable one, but given the current economy, the greenest action item is that 10 million Americans will not be commuting to their jobs.

Even the green marketing is geared toward INDIVIDUAL sustainability rather than societal efforts. We're BUYING the green, but tomorrow when garbage day arrives,
the trash bins will be overflowing with recyclables because we haven't made it EASY enough. The trash fairy will make it disappear; trucked however many miles away to the cheapest landfill operation available. Older landfills are reaching capacity and it's next to impossible to site, permit and open new ones.

Does it seem weird and wrong that one of the strongest "Green" movements is aimed at burning FOOD? Ethanol and other alternative fuels derived from agrarian products?
The epitome of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul?

Today is a day meant to educate the masses how to mitigate their muddy, messy footprints stomping around this planet.

To that end:
Earth Day Wiki
Earth Day "official website"
Find Events near you
Sierra Club

"Envirolink, your clearinghouse for for environmental information since 1991"?
Well, they have links to 8 events. That oughta do it.