Earth Day
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How Bolivia celebrates Earth Day
This morning my email inbox was full of advocacy groups commemorating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. As the ecological systems that support life are reaching their brink, there is certainly a good reason to use this opportunity to shine a spotlight on a range of issues and challenges. But activist organizations aren’t alone in […]
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Save Bette Midler, er, Mother Nature! [VIDEO]
I remember watching The Earth Day Special when I was 10 years old, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, with far too much enthusiasm. I had even set the VCR to tape it more than two weeks prior. I was such a nerd. Lucky for you guys, I still am, as is some other […]
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Republican Opinions on Environmentalism have Shifted Drastically in the Past 10 Years
In honor of Earth Day, Gallup has just released polling showing how American’s opinions of the environmental movement have changed in the previous ten years. At first glance, the results aren’t pretty: But as has been the case in several other recent polls, the change is due almost entirely to a sharp shift among Republicans. […]
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This Earth Day, it's about Hip Hop and Hard Hats
On April 22nd, 1970, twenty million Americans took action for the first Earth Day, marking the unofficial birth of the modern environmental movement. Forty years later, Earth Day is as much about hip hop and hard hats as it is about polar bears and Ponderosas. Over the past few years, the green movement has seen […]
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Let's rename Earth Day
In 2008, I wrote a piece for Salon about renaming ‘Earth’ Day. It was supposed to be mostly humorous. Or mostly serious. Anyway, the subject of renaming Earth Day seems more relevant than ever because this is the 40th anniversary. In a 2009 interview last year, our Nobel-prize winning Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, said: I would say that from here […]
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Saving Civilization is Not a Spectator Sport
Given the enormous environmental and social challenges faced by our early twenty-first century global civilization, one of the questions I hear most frequently is, What can I do? People often expect me to talk about lifestyle changes, recycling newspapers, or changing light bulbs. These are essential, but they are not nearly enough. We now need […]
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40 people who are redefining green
Four decades after the first Earth Day, the circle of people working toward a cleaner, greener world has expanded way beyond treehugging hippies, red-paint-throwing protesters, posturing politicos, and card-carrying members of enviro groups. To mark this milestone, we’ve found 40 unexpected people who are altering the green landscape. Nat Damm Erika Allen Projects Manager, Growing […]
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Labor and environmentalists have been teaming up since the first Earth Day
The approach of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22 provides us an opportunity to reflect on the “long, strange trip” shared by the environmental movement and the labor movement over four decades here on Spaceship Earth. A billion people participate in Earth Day events, making it the largest secular civic event in […]
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Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on Earth Day parties
Dearest readers, Oh snap, did you space on Earth Day again? (Newsflash: It’s tomorrow!) No worries, there’s still time (a little, anyway) to pull together something for your office or school—or at least get a head start for next year’s planning. Feeling celebratory myself, I raked through the archives to find some past tips on […]
