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The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!
Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here.
"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's gred."
~Mahatma Gandhi
"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
~John F. Kennedy
There was a huge concert this weekend at the National Mall in Washington, featuring some huge names, including Mary J. Blige, No Doubt, Fallout Boy, and Usher, who came out on golden crutches because of a left leg injury. But he said that there was no way that he was going to miss this.
And a very popular video game, Angry Birds, will be releasing an Earth Day level which will be released, fittingly, on Earth Day -this Wednesday, April 22nd.
Maybe it's time to actually get a little excited about my son playing video games. I will try to encourage him to play it, as it is evidently specifically designed to promote awareness on environmental issues, something that I have been trying to teach him (and others) about, albeit admittedly with limited success thus far in pretty much each case.
However, my own limitations in this regard should not prevent me from continuing to at least try, and so I will continue throughout the course of this week. My goal is this: to publish some blog entry or other with an environmental theme, on some level or another. This week, I hope that will include not just this blog entry, as well as my traditional Earth Day blog entry, but also some on the seeming climate change debate (not much of a debate, although there are still a surprisingly large number of deniers about), as well as others specifically on the wisdom of Native Americans regarding their relationship with Mother Earth and other living creatures that we share life on this planet with.
Now, here's the funny thing: when I first really got into the whole "Earth Day" thing, it really did not seem like a big deal, as far as being in the public eye. My own environmental activism, if you will, began in high school, when I overcame my natural inclination towards shyness and joined the Environmental Club (still a wee bit ticked off that this does not show on my high school transcripts). I attended regular meetings, and picked up the recyclable bins of all the classrooms in the building with what was then a newly established recycling program in the school, introduced by our rather inspiring history teacher. Also, I attended and gave a very brief presentation at our Town Hall against a proposed development project that would have included thousands more homes, as well as a golf course. Finally, I attended a Youth Environmental Conference at no less a prestigious place than the United Nations in New York! Now, that was cool! Still have the program!
But Earth Day was not seen as a really huge event, although it was trying to be. The first one I specifically remember was in 1990, which happens to also be the first year that it was taken globally. There was nothing specific that I did for the environment on that day. My family went to Jersey City to see a soccer game, and I remember taking in some beautiful views of the New York City skyline from across the river. Also, getting a sunburn, as it was unusually hot and sunny on that day.
Later, when I started attending Bergen Community College (BCC) and joined the Environmental Club there, I was impressed with the Earth Day festivities there. There was food and music - a lot of music! Some really cool local bands came to play, and the people in the club, whom I was really impressed with, all seemed to be into it all.
Later on, when I would become president of the club myself, most of the responsibility for the success, or lack thereof, of Earth Day fell on my shoulders. It was the first time that I had that much responsibility on my shoulders for so many things all at once, and it was exhausting. While I had been able to enjoy the previous Earth Day festivities at the college, that one was considerably less enjoyable from my standpoint. As I remember, I just wanted it done and as successful as possible, so that I could feel that I had done my job and not disappointed, not failed. It was more or less a success, although afterward, I immediately began to look forward to someone else taking over the reins. The Environmental Club actually ceased to exist, at least temporarily, the next year and, admittedly, I feel at least partly at fault for that.
In any case, this personal background with Earth Day means that it has been a particularly pronounced tradition for me, and has extra special meaning. It is a good cause, I think, because we seem to be addicted to our modern lifestyle and, that being the case, we need to find some sort of solution or balance, where we lessen our footprint on this planet, rather than the trampling all that stands in our way footprints that we as a society traditionally imposed.
Also, I believe that it does offer the possibility of re-examining our past, and coming to terms with the excesses that we will inevitably find there. No, we cannot undo the past, much as some of us might like to. However, if we at least take an honest approach towards it, and recognize where we went wrong, then maybe that could at least be a first step in not repeating the same mistakes, as we understand and use this knowledge of the past towards crafting a more sustainable present and future.
Anyway, Earth Day is a big deal, and not just for me. And not just because there was some concert in the nation's capital honoring it, or because a popular video game is trying to honor it. No, Earth Day is a big deal because it was our society's first real step towards not only understanding the problems that our society created for our planet, but to actually do something about it. To gain more knowledge, more apprecition for all that we have undeniably been blessed with in this community of life, and to actually make changes in order that we can make this thing work better. We are not about to collectively abandon our society (although that may happen sometime in the future, as Daniel Quinn projected as at least a real possibility in the distant future), but we can certainly make changes to lessen our footprint, and put the focus where it should be: not on out of control growth, but on long-term sustainability.
Here's to that!
Please take a look at my article, newly published yesterday, about the history of Earth Day, which you can find on the Guardian Liberty Voice. Please click on the link below:
Earth Day Has a Fascinating History Added by Charles Bordeau on April 18, 2015:
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