Five Top Earth Day Selections from the Web

In honor of Earth Day, I decided to put together some web highlights that I felt were original and creative approaches to dealing with the environment and sustainability, a topic which unfortunately can be cheapened with easy solutions, like changing your lightbulbs and buying hemp t-shirts. Not that there's anything wrong with these, but the overall message that needs to be conveyed is that we need to do more. We need to do 10 things, not 1 thing, if we really care about the planet. So here are Carrie's top 5, please let me know what you think and feel free to addd...
1. The Women on the Web, the new women's web site currently in beta focuses on current events and women's issues, and offers a celebrity editorial lineup including Candice Bergen, Marlo Thomas, Leslie Stahl, Whoopi Goldberg, and others, features a cartoon essay by Jane Wagner that offers a refreshing look at some serious problems. Check it out!

2. With the same humor and humanity he exuded in An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore spells out 15 ways we can address climate change, from buying a hybrid car to inventing a hotter brand name for global warming. First, though, comes a hilarious set of stories from The New Gore, who turns out to be a stand-up comedian. The former Vice President has plenty of joke material, and he's funnier than you've ever seen him. Then he gets down to grittier matters with a list of actions ordinary people can take to stem the tide of global warming. His message: Doing something is easier than you think. This is from February 2006, at the annual TED conference in Monterey.


3. Michael Pollen's "Why Bother" in the Sunday magazine Green Issue of The New York Times, offers fresh insights into why we should bother to take steps now to help avoid the calamities of global warming, but also affirms our tendency to do the easiest thing and why we have to resist. He uses the metaphor of gardening to get us back to our "roots," so to speak, and discusses everything from photosynthesis to Wendell Berry, to cheap energy consumption. "The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world," he states.

4. The Sundance Channel Eco Biz site features some great videos, including a new one profiling Mark Spellun, editor of Plenty magazine, that covers all issues green. The video highlights how the magazine is put together and what issues they focus on.

5. Also from Plenty: "Spring is HERE and in honor of Earth Day, Jessica Tzerman shared a roundup of Plenty’s favorite “green gear” picks for the season. Need a new umbrella to stay dry in April showers but don’t want it to end up in a landfill when the umbrella inevitably breaks or gets lost? Try the biodegradable Brelli. When it’s nice out, a set of reusable, stackable lunch carriers keeps your picnic on the green and narrow. Just make sure to remember Ella Vickers’ recycled sail tote when you’re grocery shopping. Looking for other ways to take advantage of the sunshine on a Saturday afternoon? Why not break in a pair of Simple’s new eco-sneaks with a walk in the park. You can even catch up on phone time with Iqua’s new solar-powered Bluetooth headset—the first-ever—while you’re out there. Or if you’re feeling active, grab a few friends and a fair trade football or basketball. And as long as you’re out and about smelling the flowers, snag a bloom or two (with permission, of course) to bring home with you. With Ron Gilad’s VaseMakers, you can turn any can, jar, or cup into a receptacle worthy of any flower’s power.

Happy reading, viewing, and recycling, and Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day is Coming...April 22! 500,000 Expected to Attend Green Apple Festivals Throughout US

Earth Day is April 22nd, and there are a host of activities all over the country in celebration. EarthDay.net is an excellent web site that highlights many new and ongoing initiatives. The following press release highlights this year's events:

"On Sunday, April 20 Earth Day Network is spearheading one of the largest Earth Day gatherings in U.S. history - major day-long events on the National Mall in Washington, DC and seven other cities, 1,000 college campuses, and hundreds of community events that are expected to attract hundreds of thousands of participants and rally support for immediate and equitable national action on global warming. The flagship event on the National Mall is free and will feature elected officials and candidates, community speakers, celebrities and major musical acts as well as educational displays and voter registration. Simultaneous free events will be held in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas and Miami. The events are being produced by Green Apple Festival and sponsored by Chase.

All the activities are being coordinated by Earth Day Network, the nonprofit organization that mobilizes 17,000 organizations worldwide and 5,000 organizations in the U.S. Earth Day Network was founded by the organizers of the original Earth Day in 1970.

“This Earth Day, it’s time to change the forecast for global warming,” said Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day Network. “Climate change must rise to the top of the national agenda this election year. On April 20th, Americans will be hearing our global warming message and we will be mobilizing support for solutions.”

“Our events are about highlighting solutions to help overcome the significant environmental challenges we face today,” said Peter Shapiro, Founder & Executive Producer of Green Apple Festival and producer of the new U2 3D film. “By bringing together live music, education, and a wide range of non-profit organizations in America’s most prominent parks, we hope to draw significant attention to the most important issue of our time.”

The 2008 Earth Day events will include a voter registration component, especially in low income communities. Studies have shown that minority and low income populations are the most impacted by global warming. The solution is a new energy future based on renewable sources that will mean less greenhouse gasses, spur jobs and stimulate the economy.

In addition to the free events on the Mall and seven cities, April 21st there will be a day of action. For the second year in a row, Earth Day Network is sponsoring Earth Day on the Hill, which will bring community leaders from all over the U.S. to lobby Congress on the issues of global warming and environmental justice and equity.

“We will be creating surround-sound on the issue of global warming,” said Rogers. “Our leaders will hear from us on the National Mall, in the halls of Congress and in the news media. We will be making a lot of noise this Earth Day.”

Earth Day Network will also be calling for people to take personal steps to fight climate change, such as taking public transportation or carpooling to Earth Day events, as well as signing Earth Day Network’s Sky Petition at www.earthday.net. The solutions-oriented Sky Petition calls for a moratorium on new coal-burning plants, a move toward a renewable energies, a demand for new buildings to be carbon neutral, and protection for the poor and middle class from unfairly assuming more than their fair share of the costs of the transition to a green economy.

Earth Day Network is also working with religious and faith-based communities to support sermons in thousands of churches, synagogues and mosques.

Campus action will be a major component of Earth Day 2008. Earth Day Network believes strongly in creating personal responsibility for the environment among students around the world. In line with the groundswell of activism on college campuses, over 1,000 of them will be featuring Earth Day events. Earth Day Network is one of the sponsors of Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming, a contest that recognizes campuses and campus leaders for their efforts to solve climate change issues. On April 16, Earth Day TV will host the Chill Out broadcast. Earth Day Network has also signed a Green Schools initiative with President Clinton and works with more than 25,000 K-12 teachers.

Earth Day Network encourages groups to hold their own Earth Day events in their communities and to register them at www.earthday.net.

About Earth Day Network

Earth Day Network, www.earthday.net, seeks to grow and diversify the environmental movement worldwide, and to mobilize it as the most effective vehicle for promoting a healthy, sustainable planet. It pursues these goals through education, politics, cultural events, and consumer activism. Earth Day Network has a global reach with a network of more than 17,000 partners and organizations in 174 countries. More than 1 billion people participate in Earth Day activities, making it the largest secular civic event in the world."