Earth Day 2009

Tomorrow is Earth Day. In honour of the day, I have written a biography of Rachel Carson which will be published tomorrow morning on Literary Lunch. Rachel Carson was one of the first people to bring our attention to the danger that pesticides posed to life on this planet.

A few months ago, I wrote an article about ways to help save the environment called Seven Ways to Save the Environment.

I know it is trendy for some to deny global warming and to belittle environmentalists as being "tree hugging hippies". But, the common sense fact is that we will one day run out of oil and we must concentrate on finding more natural ways to heat our homes, and light our lights. To just say I'll do what I want and waste all the energy I want because I don't believe in global warming or environmentalism is a short-sighted and juvenile reaction. Take Earth Hour for example, many people said they were going to burn all the electricity they could during that hour just to be different, just to think they were being free-thinking individuals. Fine, don't observe Earth Hour, but you don't have to be a jackass about it. Sure, everyone does have the right to be an ignorant jackass whenever they want but where does that get them? They will be just as affected by brownouts and blackouts and food shortages as everyone else.

Well, that is my free-form rant out of the way. Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970, it is now celebrated around the world on April 22.