Happy Birthday, Mother Earth!

[macdobhran]

Originally published at Fast Food Zen. You can comment here or there.

While probably not her actual birthday, it is Earth Day. Now I don’t really consider myself a hippie-tree-hugger (leaving that to TheWife to offset my carbon bootprint) I like to think that I’m at least ecologically aware. We generally recycle, use eco-friendly products, and have changed most of lights to compact fluorescent bulbs. Since it is too far for me to bicycle to work, we try to carpool as much as possible in our Prius.

It’s blue. Which is really the most environmentally friendly color, donchaknow.

I think a lot of people are like me. Aware, but never really making too much of an effort. Of course, then there are friends of mine who grow their own organic vegetables in environmentally friendly community garden plots. I consider them true leaders and inspirations. Unfortunately I am the living example of Newton’s First Law of Motion in that unless acted upon by an extremely powerful force I will tend to stay at rest. In my recliner. With the television on and a laptop.

Today, however, I’m feeling a little inspired.  At least I feel like I should be inspired.  But what should I do to celebrate this auspicious day?  Plant a rain forest?  Build a solar powered wind turbine?  Maybe next year.  This year I think I’ll look a little closer to home–like my backyard.

There’s weeding that needs to be done, flowers and trees to be planted, and yard waste to be recycled. TheWife and I have thought about starting a garden but we haven’t done anything about it. Maybe this year we’ll at least decide what to plant and where. They’re not huge plans but everyone has to start somewhere because as a friend of mine says, “We should all work together to save the Earth–it’s the only planet with chocolate!”

My question then to you is, what are YOU going to do?

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Today’s Specials:

www.earthday.org
www.epa.gov/earthday
www.earthhour.com
www.cleanwateraction.org
www.350.org