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Earth Day makes me feel bad but good

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 Leave a Comment

So today is Earth Day.

{{{ Big Hug }}}

I was flipping through the Wall Street Journal while waiting for my car at the shop, and there was an article about how Earth Day is just a huge marketing gimmick. Some representative of an environmental group said, and I'm totally paraphrasing here, that Earth Day is sort of like the woman who pulls up to the grocery store in her gas-guzzling SUV and takes a cloth bag in to buy her organic milk. If this is the best we can do, then the environmental movement has totally failed.

And I thought, "Hey, that's me!"

Really? We've totally failed?

I sort of fretted about it all day, driving around with just me in my All Road. which is not quite an SUV and I feel a little smug about that, but it does cost $70 to fill it up. Then I got home and watched Oprah, and she praised all of us moms for every single little thing, like the cloth bags, and the organic cucumbers, and using rags instead of paper towels to wipe the counter, and the curlicue lightbulbs, and dumping my coffee grounds in the garden that I will someday plant, 'cause if we all do a little, it cumulatively adds up to a lot.

And I felt better. Thanks, O.

2 comments »

  • CewTwo said:  

    I'm in to the movement late. I have a small pickup that I drive as little as possible. I have cloth grocery and other store bags.

    I'm trying to figure out how to get a bagel and not get plastic. Even a paper bag is not desirable.

    As a runner, and at the price of gas, I try to motivate around my Englewood neighborhood, using my feet as much as possible. I've even changed Doctors so I can walk.

    Even curlicue lights have miniscule drops of mercury in them...

    Beyond that, what is a person to do?

  • Maria Lucas said:  

    i'm an suv driving plastic bag using paper towel addict... but at least i use the plastic bags to pick up after my four-legged friends... that's something, right Oprah?