Every Day Is Earth Day

One great thing about having a birthday on April 22nd is that CUMTD honors me by offering the community free bus rides all day long.

(rimshot)

But seriously, Happy Earth Day!

In related news: Friday, April 30th, is Arbor Day in Illinois.

Each state celebrates Arbor Day at slightly different times, as do countries worldwide, from Australia to Yemen.

The Arbor Day Foundation offers a variety of ideas on how to mark the occasion, including a resource called Celebrate Arbor Day Guidebook (pdf).

Locally, the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) based in Champaign is hosting a contest called Trees Bring Life to the Neighborhood.

There are five categories for everyone from kindergarten scribblers to professional adult photographers. Deadline: April 26th.

The ISA created a suggested reading list targeted to youngsters. You can find the titles below at, or through, our library ...

The Lorax / Dr. Seuss

The Giving Tree / Shel Silverstein

The Green Hour: A Daily Dose of Nature for Happier, Healthier, Smarter Kids / Todd Christopher

Lives of the Trees: An Uncommon History / Diana Wells

A Festival of Trees: An Adventure in Israel / Disney's Small World Library

We Planted a Tree / Diane Muldrow

This Tree Counts / Alison Formento

Poetrees / Douglas Florian

Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees / Roger Deakin

Our Tree Named Steve / Alan Zweibel

A Friend for All Seasons / Julie Hubery

Arbor Day / Kelly Bennett

Pearl Plants a Tree / Jane Breskin Zalben

Arbor Day Magic / James W. Baker

Photo courtesy of Per Ola Wiberg ~ Powi (CC BY 2.0).

Spring Is Here ... and the Bugs Too

In this video from Big Think, anthropologist Hugh Raffles at The New School asks us to resist the urge to kill insects and explains why:

Don’t swat a fly and don’t smush a spider. You don’t need to do that and just think about how interesting they are and maybe just look at them. I think we can--I really do think it enriches our lives to look at them and to pay attention to them.

Paint the White House Green?

Seattle-based Grist.org delivers the "green scoop" on President-elect Obama's cabinet picks.

Many score high marks for their publicly expressed concerns about climate change; others catch criticism for supporting genetically modified crops.

What's special about Grist? From their "About Us" page:

Let's face it: reading environmental journalism too often feels like eating your vegetables. Boiled. With no butter.

But at Grist, we believe that news about green issues and sustainable living doesn't have to be predictable, demoralizing, or dull. We butter the vegetables! And add salt! And strain metaphors! ...

[W]e throw brickbats when they're needed and bestow kudos when they're warranted. And while we take our work seriously, we don't take ourselves seriously, because of the many things this planet is running out of, sanctimonious tree-huggers ain't one of them.

On a similar note, have a look at our recent purchase, The New Village Green: Living Light, Living Local, Living Large.

The book contains a variety of informative articles and wisdom, including how to clean the air at home with house plants, the basics of financial independence, and even "How Insects Hunker Down for the Winter."

Elsewhere, TNVG contributor Larry Saltzman suggests some timely resources in "Understanding the Current Money Melt-Down," via HopeDance.

Earth Day 2008

A National Wildlife Foundation blogger offers a checklist of activities you might do to celebrate Earth Day. Here's one example:

Turning Off [Your] Computer to Walk Outside: There's so much noise during the day that I'm feeling the need to find a quiet place and listen to sounds that don't resemble a keyboard. I'm sure most people aren't online as much as I am, but I truly feel recharged when I'm away from plugs that feed my laptop. And since it's Earth Day I'm going to try and make it longer than just a green hour.

Other ideas can be gleaned from publications like The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen and The Lazy Environmentalist by Josh Dorfman. Or maybe you've not yet seen An Inconvenient Truth, available on DVD.

Illinois Lt. Governor Pat Quinn yesterday commended the city of Urbana for being a charter member of the Tree City program and for other earth-conscious projects.

Tree City USA has four main requirements, which includes spending $2 per capita on trees, establishing a tree board or having a city arborist, celebrating Arbor Day and having a tree ordinance. The tree ordinance guides the community on how to care for their trees ... Urbana has 120 trees per linear mile of street, making it one of the most densely populated cities for trees in the country.