How Green is My Town?: Earth Week Musings

The 40th Anniversary of Earth Week was cause for celebration and activism across the United States this past week. I had the opportunity to view photos from "How Green Is My Town?" Facebook fans across the country, who had participated in our Earth Week Challenge. Thank you to Asheville Green Works for sending photos of their Go Local campaign. HGIMT encourages local governments to work with their local business community, to ensure that residents have access to locally produced food and products.

Here in New York, I had the pleasure of attending many Earth Day celebrations, meeting with environmental non-profit leaders as well as some exciting, new green entrepreneurs. Congratulations to Earth Day New York for their great "i am e" campaign. Their Earth Day exhibition at Grand Central Station in Manhattan this weekend was well attended by local residents. I was glad to see Dr. Ben and his Bio Bus in attendance - for anyone associated with a school or school district, Dr. Ben's model for bringing environmental education to students at various locations is a great example for a potential non-profit and school district partnership that could work anywhere in the country.

At left and below are pictures of New York Restoration Project's "NYC Grows" exhibit in Union Square. The exhibit included a great new gardening technology, the Wolly Pocket, a new product using recycled materials to create breathable planters that "can grow just about anywhere." The company's Wolly School Garden program helps schools develop funds for an an outdoor classroom and "a chance for students in K-12 to grow while learning about gardening and nutrition." The vertical gardening devices, pictured below, can be easily implemented in classrooms and outdoor spaces throughout an entire school district, an easy way to integrate enviro nmental curriculum into all grades.

While I was pleased to see many new, important environmental organizations at this week's Earth Day celebrations, I had to stop and think about the true strides we've made since the first Earth Day in 1970. With oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico while the White House strategizes their climate change agenda, I had to think about what the word "green" has meant to the environmental movement over the past forty years. I agree with the following quote but documentarian Robert Stone, director of the film "Earth Days": "Every Earth Day is a reflection of where we are as a culture. If it has become commoditized, about green consumerism instead of systematic change, then it is a reflection of our society."

I highly recommend viewing "Earth Days" online - the film captures the essence of the modern day environmental movement. The film includes some great footage of Rachel Carson, and explains how Earth Day was founded to insert environmentalism into the body politic. The first Earth Day was a true grassroots movement, with "environmental teach-ins" and protests planned all over the country. It was interesting to hear the film's interviewees describe former federal environmental legislation as "peripheral" and not "getting to the heart of the issues." While I remain hopeful that our federal leaders will finally step up to the challenge that they have shirked for the past thirty years (since Carter left office), I'm reminded about the important work of "How Green Is My Town?" - local change sparked by citizens and town leaders unwilling to continue waiting for federal solutions.