I was going to strangle a panda, but do you know how hard it is to find a panda in Canada? Trust me, I looked.

I picked up 6 garbage bags of rubbish , a bike and 3 deck chairs out of the creek above the end of our road. I pick everything every day on the section behind our house and down stream

I try to make a difference every day by adhering to a mostly vegan diet. I don't know if my own personal attempts to help our planet matter, but I can't not try. As it turns out, I still have a conscience. ?

I was hoping someone would post something about Earth Day. Now I can, again, brag about where I live. What I am doing (did) was to volunteer and participate for most of these events. Yesterday started with some of us volunteers setting up for an event at our Community Center. Then off to our annual "Parade of the Species". It was a decent day and there were a couple of hundred in attendance. This event is mostly for the kids so they can dress up as some sort of species, plant or animal. Drums were playing and the route was about ¾ mile. Afterward was a book signing/discussion by a neighbor of mine. She has a mental illness (Bipolar) and deals with it by speaking out and writing a book “Glass Slipper”. I was impressed at her candor. The CC event was our annual spirit award honoring a couple (also neighbors who have a Kiwi farm) who has done the most for the community for the year. I estimated around 100 present. Of course the standard potluck and roasting/toasting. A competing event was the Grange Earth Day square dance/potluck. This morning was the semi-annual “Great Islands Clean-Up”. It is a county wide event but our islands geography and community culture makes it by far the most active. [visitsanjuans.com] Next week is the start of Tour de Lopez. [lopezisland.com]

Realize that 'Earth Day' is one more day that we beg this beloved rock of ours to think of us as still symbiotic and not parasitic.

It's 70°F here in CO. What a great day!

Every day is earth day, technically.

I don't think it makes a significant impact, honestly, though I wish it were more effective. People who are environmentally conscious are the ones who already routinely conserve, cut down on waste, and look for ways to improve the ecology; and people who aren't concerned with the environment are less likely to do anything special on Earth Day but, even if they did, it wouldn't have a long-term effect. (I mean, think about it in these terms: even if there were zero consumption of energy and materials and zero waste produced one day every year, that wouldn't come remotely close to offsetting our overall consumption and waste. We'd be in the same situation we are now.) I don't think Earth Day sways anyone to be a better caretaker of the planet. But if we're serious about improving things, we have to make a conscious effort every day, invest in renewable, clean energy, promote truly recyclable materials, be willing to pay more for goods that are produced in more ecologically friendly ways, and on and on. I know I don't do enough in this regard, though I do try to conserve resources where I can and eliminate needless waste — but I could do a lot more, and it still would be insignificant. I think the biggest strides will be technological, and about all I can do to support that is to vote for representatives who are pro-science, who care about having a serious energy plan, who will use my tax dollars to fund increasingly efficient technologies.

I have planted a beautiful garden of exotic flowers like I do every spring. I look forward to their blooming in the near future and take great comfort in their beauty.