Oh, beautiful for smoggy skies

Oh beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain,
For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain.
America, America, man sheds his waste on thee,
And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea.
~~~ performed by George Carlin
around 1970, when environmental
issues were becoming
a hot political topic
(Many thanks to Susan for this quote, which I hadn't heard before. Click to enlarge poster.)

Time Capsule for Earth Day

Juliet Wilson (Crafty Green Poet) wrote Time Capsule for Earth Day, using the time capsule to preserve the beauty of a skylark's song, the colorful flash of a kingfisher, the fall of a peregrine, and the cadence of a nightingale. Click on the title to read her beautifully expressive words.

I would give you
the song of a skylark
rising thoughtless
into the blue

the blue green flash
of a kingfisher
darting downstream
to the waterfall

the fall
of a peregrine
plunging to catch
its prey

the prayerful cadence
of a nightingale
in the honeysuckle scent
of evening


The RSPB works to conserve birds and their habitat across the UK and beyond.

Time Capsule for Weekend Wordsmith

Earth Day is 22 April 2008. Enjoy the beauty of the earth and help to protect it for future generations.

Eco-exits

Green funerals make for eco-exits
A woman looks into a coffin made of willow at a 'green funeral' exhibition in London, Saturday April 19, 2008. It's no longer enough to live a greener life, now people are being encouraged to be environmentally friendly when they leave the Earth too. Cardboard coffins, shell-shaped urns and fireworks that can be packed with people's ashes were met by smiles at the Natural Death Center's Green Funeral Exhibition Saturday in London. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Wear BLUE

Wear BLUE for Earth Day 2008
to Vote for NO COAL

Want to stop global warming? Wear BLUE for Earth Day 2008! Join millions of people around the world who will be wearing BLUE to signify their vote for NO COAL. Events will be happening April 19th through April 22nd, so...

If you’re attending the Earth Day event on the National Mall in Washington, DC on April 20th, wear BLUE.

If you’re attending another major Earth Day event, wear BLUE.

When you dress in the morning on Earth Day, wear BLUE.

No matter what you’re doing for Earth Day 2008, wear BLUE.

A BLUE shirt, top, sweater or jacket... whatever. Just wear BLUE.

Then, on April 22, make your voice heard. Pick up the phone: Call Congress at 202.224.3121 and ask for an immediate "Moratorium on Coal" -- a halt to the construction of any new conventional coal-fired power plants. Through this Call for Climate event, Earth Day hopes to generate over a million phone calls to Congress!

Your BLUE vote will count. Fifty-nine conventional coal plants were canceled in 2007. That’s over a third of the 151 planned. That happened before millions of people joined together to say No Coal.

BYO Blue for Earth Day 2008. Be the vote that tips the balance.
__________

Help us get the message out:
. . . send this message to everyone you know
. . . attend an Earth Day event wearing BLUE and
. . . on April 22nd, wear BLUE all day - to work, lunch and dinner
. . . make the call to Congress at 202.224.3121, asking for an immediate Moratorium on Coal

The Urbane Environmentalist

You need to read Jim Hackler's stuff. He writes as The Urbane Environmentalist and has a sense of humor. He's passionate about green and has been a broadcast news journalist, a college instructor, a stand-up comic, and a featured conference speaker. He wants to be somewhere in the middle between boring and unnecessarily alarming. Go read some of what he's written and see for yourself.

Green Short Story

We are invited to write a GREEN short story of up to 2,000 words in length for Delta-Sky Magazine. It may employ any tone, from funny to apocalyptic, but must deliberately have some aspect of green as a prevailing presence, or even its theme. By "green" they mean the concern for our environment that is motivating people worldwide to take action to reverse its degradation. To waste less, for example, and to care more.

Click here for the official rules. There's only a week left before it's due on April 15th.

Same urgent message

Old magazine cover, same urgent message