22 April 10
Happy 40th Earth Day!
I remember the first one. I was in elementary school, and somebody organized us to pick up trash around the schoolyard — the school on top of the hill, with an upper and lower playground separated by a small slope planted with acacias and other trees. This session was before school started in the morning, and I was a little worried about making it to class on time.
A random Earth Day 2010 initiative that I like: the organization iFixit.com which is known for providing people with the resources, both informational and physical parts, to repair their Apple hardware, today announced a much more ambitious goal, to teach every person on Earth how to repair every thing they own. Their platform is an online set of repair manuals that anyone can edit in wiki-like fashion. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and repair: the fourth term in that mantra gets left out all too often.
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Pica (and Numenius whom I haven’t met), I was at the first Earth Day at UCD in Mrak Hall working for Chancellor Jim Meyer. The Quad was spectacular, filled with talks, and booths, and things hippy dippy, even a teepee. We were so idealistic, and there was peace and love all around, Of course, the Kent State shootings were yet to come in less than 2 weeks, shattering the mood, and the Vietnam War dragged on (some things never change) but it’s useful to remember that a grass roots movement can spark good concrete things to happen now and then.—Sue in MA