Earth Day, celebrated April 22, was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970. It is celebrated in many countries every year.
Green is now in, and corporations around the globe keep emphasizing how green their newest gadget is (whether or not it truly is), as well as promoting greenness with carbon offsets and the like.
For example, this year, on Earth Day, Disney is unveiling its movie Earth. For every ticket sold in the first week, Disney has pledged to plant a tree.
Sidebar: the film Earth, which was filmed at the same time the BBC was filming the mini-series Planet Earth, is glorious and wonderful by all accounts, Earth Day notwithstanding.
As opposed to the mini-series, which looked at a different aspect of the Earth every episode, the movie focuses on "the family," examining a family of animals.
It covers polar bears in the Arctic, humpback whales off Antarctica, both affected by the seasonal changes in sunlight, as well as African elephants, covering Earth's equatorial regions.
With all three species, the raising of their young is a key part of the story. "We deliberately wanted to include cubs, calves and the youngsters," Linfield said. "We felt that was a subtle nod to the future."
Along the way, the filmmakers also captured other animals -- wolves hunting caribou in the north, big cats on the prowl in the Kalahari, birds of paradise seeking mates in Papua New Guinea -- that "emotionally added light and shade" to the story, Linfield said. And they featured time-lapse images of plant growth "to get a sense of the physical earth," he said.
Linfield said the makers of "Earth" tried to avoid delivering a heavy-handed environmental message. "We thought, actually, the most powerful thing you can do in conservation is to see what's at stake," Linfield said. "Also, in a positive way, we show what we still have left."
On Earth Day, how could you not see such a film? But, one thing that irks many, including me, is when people (generally companies) say it's too expensive to go green, or (as now) that we should not be considering the environment because of the recession.
Earth Day or no, this makes me remember those old Fram oil filter commercials. "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later." We can choose to change our approach to the environment now, or we can leave a devastated planet for our descendents.
For those who trumpet that our deficit spending is leaving debt for our children to repay, how about, on this Earth Day, thinking about what consequences will emerge for our children if we don't address global warming and other environmental issues now.
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