Happy Earth Day!

I'm sure everyone has big Earth Day celebrations planned for the day. No? I'm shocked. No, not really. Thanks to news stories, most people will probably at least here that today is earth day though, which is more than can be said of years past. That makes me wonder if we are reaching a dangerous saturation point where "green" and "environmental" messages are concerned.
I remember years ago when bottled water first started appearing on shelves. Remember? Before Coca-Cola and Pepsi even got in on the action with Dasani and Aquafina? I heard a lot of people making fun of us bottled water drinkers. After all, water was free right from the tap. What kind of moron would go to the store and pay for water? Now, just ten years or so later, how many people don't buy bottled water? I'm sure there are a few people who still step up to the faucet with a glass in hand and drink straight from the tap, but I can't think it's very many people. Even people who do drink tap water probably have a filter pitcher or a filtration system on the refrigerator. What happened? Did we just get used to questioning the safety of our water supply rather than demanding cleaner water?
The same kind of thing is true for sun block. I can remember when I was little, my mom and her sisters used "tanning oil" and in the absence of store-bought tanning oil, they'd just use baby oil. Then we started hearing that maybe the sun wasn't the warm happy ball in the sky we thought it was, and we started seeing sunscreen popping up on store shelves. Even then, most people only used sunscreen if they were fair skinned or tended to get sunburned noses or shoulders. And a few hours playing in the yard? Well that was no reason for protection from the sun. Now, I'm not sure you can even find sunscreen, it's all sun block, and almost nobody goes out for a day in the sun without it. For that matter, many people limit their outdoor activities to the early morning and evening hours to decrease their exposure to the sun's harmful rays.
These changes in our behavior and our thinking seemed to have happened gradually, but the evolution was complete in under a decade. We just take bottled water and sun block for granted, and I have to tell you, that concerns me. I heard a news story recently that spoke of global climate change as if it was an inevitability, something that could be wrestled to the ground and defeated with the right ideas and investment. I believe global climate change is an inevitability, eventually. But I do think the rate of change is directly proportionate to humankind's impact on the earth. Rather than give us more stuff to buy in response to the problem, I would rather we be encouraged to help slow, if not prevent, the problem. I'm not saying air conditioning or swimming pools should be banned, heavens no, but there are things that individuals, businesses, and governments can all do. It is unfortunate that for the most part, businesses and governments (at least American ones) have chosen to ignore and deny the problem, and now I fear their strategy is just to pretend that global climate change is an unavoidable steamroller heading right for us, so why alter our lifestyles? What's next? We passively accept it when we all have to wear oxygen masks because of poor air quality?
I realize this post is something of a rant, and I'd say I'm sorry except that I'm not. So let me just offer my thanks for the things, big and small, that individuals are doing to at least keep the spirit of Earth Day in mind. In the comments, I'd love it if people would let me know what those things are. Sharing ideas is an important weapon in this fight for our planet. For my part, we use reusable grocery bags, reduce our consumption, drive a low-emission vehicle, buy organic most of the time, buy locally when we can, and make use of our local Goodwill store rather than contributing to crowded landfills. See, it's small stuff, but it's something. So what about you?