Earth Day was started in 1970 by Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from our home state of Wisconsin. And, depending on who you talk to, it's been alternately praised or derided ever since.
So what's a person in our line of work to make of all the commotion surrounding April 22? Here are my two cents:
- Ignoring a Huge Challenge Doesn't Make It Go Away The challenge of sustainability is real and complex. There are billions to feed and many of the resources we currently use are finite. To the extent that Earth Day brings that challenge to the forefront of our thinking, it's a day well worth commemorating.
- Small Efforts Are Too Easily Dismissed as Insignificant At Charleston|Orwig, we wrestle with some of the bigger issues of global sustainability every day. And it's often heady work. But Earth Day also reminds us the many smaller efforts that we and others can (and should) do really add up.
For example, as I wrote that last sentence, a plastic bag blew down the Ice Age National Scenic Trail that runs outside our offices. And it reminded me of two of our recent efforts. First, we've made reusable cloth bags available to our associates. And second, a group of us will be spending an hour on Friday cleaning up that section of trail that runs by our offices.
Neither action will do all that much to solve the enormous challenge of global sustainability. But, in our opinion, they're both clearly worth doing while we wrestle with those much larger issues.
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