The Importance of Earth Day

I had a moment yesterday to browse through some articles on-line and was stopped here on the home page of Whole Living with the simple question 'Is Earth Day Still Important?'...
Well, of course it is! Isn't it?

via Whole Living

This really got me thinking.  We've been celebrating Earth Day for 40 years now and over that time we have seen too many oil spills, melting glaciers, temperature changes and crazy increases in our carbon emissions.  As a whole, we take this one day every year (sometimes it can be the week, like at my son's school) to profess our love of nature and our planet and promise to do a better job in the coming years, but is this enough?  

I started thinking of Wall-e (such a fantastic movie) and how our sheer negligence and need for more turn our planet into nothing more than a garbage heap, unable to sustain life.  I think of the Lorax (Oh, how we love Dr. Suess here at home) and the truffula's and their plight to have clean air and water. 

We need to collectively turn Earth Day into a daily event, striving to be better to our planet with everything we do.  We need to teach our children about conserving our natural resources and help them to find ways of upcycling their possesions and things they bring home.  We also need to listen to our children and their concerns and new ideas.  They have no limits to their imaginations and haven't yet been discouraged by all the barriers that seem to be put up to help us live greener lives.  They are enthusiastic about their futures and the possibilities are endless for them. 

This Earth Day, what are you doing to celebrate the day?  Have you made changes that are impacting your daily lives for the better?  Do you have any hints or suggestions on how to sustain a green lifestyle?  I think this is an important topic to consider not only this week but every week of the year.  We can make a difference and make change for the better!