Celebrate Earth Day!

I know, everyone's doing it today. And why not. The earth is pretty critical for all of us and, for many of us, even small changes meant he difference between life and death. And all of us are susceptible to some of her effects, whether extreme weather, earthquakes, tsunamis, drought and more.

There is some good news. Awareness of her and the effects of what we do are more acknowledged now than they ever been. That doesn't solve all the problems by any means, but it's much easier to solve problems (even the really ugly ones) when you acknowledge you have one. Look what we've managed with regards to ozone! And many forms of pollution!

The ones that remain, though, are significant and challenging.

Another key element is that people are more involved and aware and more people in more places are making an effort. That is (overall) a good thing. The problems that face us can't be solved by everyone waiting for someone else to do something about it. We all have to be involved.

So, what have you been doing?

Better yet, let me tell you what I've been doing.

• All of my incandescent bulbs have been replaced with CFLs and some of them are being replaced with LED bulbs.
• This year, we're putting up solar screens. It's a hot climate down here and our back windows face south.
• We're also going to put up radiant barrier in the roof and weatherize windows.
• We use Green Mountain Energy, which is 100% wind/solar generated.
• We're making a point of recycling (and have been for some time).
• We have a programmable thermostat and are making a point of watching our our AC usage.
• I switched out a gas guzzler and go back and forth to work with a car with three times the gas mileage. By switching out cars and changing habits, we cut our gasoline usage in half (and that was when the price was nearly twice what it is now - the cost is now close to 1/4 what it was).
  

None of these are life altering or desperately expensive, but they make a difference (including doing good things for our utility and gas bills). And each improvement works for the benefit of the earth and of me personally.

Am I doing all I can? No, but I will continue to look for opportunities. I encourage you do the same, for all our sakes.

As a special bonus, here's a list of all the satellites we have up specifically to observe the state of the earth. Check it out. There's some cool beans investigations going on and we should all know about them.

UPDATE: I completely overlooked that yesterday was supposed to be a "Wednesday Writing Workshop" that few would actually participate in - I'm not regretting this, but I'll make an effort to get back on track next week IF I can do so on travel - I'll be on travel next week.

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