April 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Earth Day is here. In my burg, the streets were filled with people walking and biking to school this morning. Odd thing happened. Many of the parents lingered, talking to each other. You couldn’t have herded them off the sidewalks. So much for suburban isolation. Why don’t we do it more often?

But the big Earth Day event today is in New York City this morning, where Denis Hayes, one of the two U.S. Earth Day founders, and Kathleen Rodgers,  president of the Earth Day Network, are appearing in Times Square to kick off a call to action for the coming year. They’re calling it the “Green Generation” campaign, an effort to enlarge the movement for a fossil-fuel free future and more green jobs. They’re installing a new rotating “Earth Ball” in Times Square as a symbol of the drive, which culminates on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in 2010.

So, ummm, let’s not drop the ball on this one. Okay?

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Also this Earth Week, the clearing of ditches and planting of trees continues.

All sorts of groups are getting out to tidy up their towns, beaches and public parks. These community projects, while not sexy like lofting a giant globe in the heart of the city, are still the lifeblood of the green movement, which must be strong both locally and globally to succeed. (Hey, how about a slogan, Think Globally, Act Locally?)

There are thousands of these “actions” this week. We’re nominating the one in Long Beach, N.J., as having the most party potential:

The Long Beach Island Business Alliance hosts its first “Green Up Clean Up” (this coming Saturday, April 25, from 9 a.m. to noon) to clean the Boulevard and streets along the island, including debris blowing in the bay and ocean. Volunteers can pick up cleaning supplies, gloves and trash bags at local businesses designated as “Crab Traps”. Early birds will get a t-shirt.  All volunteers will get a bracelet entitling them to business discounts that day, and the first 100 volunteers to visit the Dark Star Café in Ship Bottom starting at 12:15 (after the clean up) will get a free lunch. (So there is such a thing.) A bonfire follows that night.

This is what passes for a work day on the beach?!

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Finally, on Green Right Now we’ve got a great story posted on this Earth Day, a primer on global warming called No math needed: A look at global warming by the numbers. This status report on the planet by reporter Laura May gives us some vital information using key numbers from the green movement. Like the number “one”. That’s how many degrees the Earth warmed this last century. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? If only the picture were so simple. The warming is accelerating.

Want to know the significance of the numbers 60, 80 and 360? Check out the piece. It’s sobering, but hopeful too. Time to act.

Happy Earth Day!