Strive to make every day Earth Day -- bring about lasting change

Everyone, it seems, wants to don the emerald glasses and be "green" for a day.

Plant a tree and you're green! Recycle pop cans and you're green! Buy earth-friendly hand soap and you're green!

But Earth Day is not a once-a-year feel-good trip to an illusionary place. And there is no wizard behind the curtain calling the shots.

Inaugurated in 1970, Earth Day is a celebration of life with an underlying message about lifestyle. The essence of Earth Day's message is the need to shift paradigms from "More is better" to "Enough is plenty." This message has been shouted, then whispered, mumbled, diluted, and ignored during the shifting political leadership over the past 40 years.

Today the message has a bit more oomph to it than in the recent past, but there is a bothersome trendiness in the current call to "go green." Trends, as well all know, are here and gone. It may be fine to plant a green tree in, say, western Oregon. But maybe we should go golden here on the prairie and plant grasses instead of trees. Or, in Arizona, Earth Day perhaps should be about going brown to restore the native desert.

No, Earth Day is not about being green or any other color. Earth Day is about a mindset affecting lasting change.

Despite a multitude of means to convey the Earth Day message since 1970, it has taken pain in the pocketbook to get people to sit up and listen. The economic meltdown we're experiencing tells us loud and clear that insidious greed and unfettered growth have consequences. We are finding that the consequences are none too pretty for people or for the planet. Foreclosures lead to human homelessness and building booms lead to habitat loss. We face frozen credit and melting ice caps. The survival of many people, plants and animals is at stake.

"Limits" is not a word that Americans like to hear. But the break-neck race to unlimited growth has led to the harsh reality of limits. There are limits in the financial world and the ecological world as well. Well into the morass of global economic and ecological decline, economists and politicians are calling for what environmentalists have sought for decades: a new paradigm of sustainable growth.

To embrace such a paradigm, there must be a shift in perception of comfort level for our personal lifestyles. In other words, can one car in the garage and a chicken in the microwave be enough? (The car, of course, being a hybrid and the chicken being free range and locally grown.) Can a roof over our head with a solar panel on a modestly sized home be enough? Can pedestrian-friendly communities with viable alternatives to the automobile be enough?

A life with limits does not have to be painful. By changing how we look at wants and needs we may come to the realization enough is truly plenty.

Now quick! Grab the (non-aerosol) can of Guilt-be-Gone! All this talk can easily take on the gloom-and-doom tone of the early '70s environmental movement. And guilt is not a good motivator for change. In fact, it often causes people to throw up their hands in defeat and say, "what difference can I make?"

You can make a difference, and doomsday does not have to be part of the picture. Start small. Think big. Change your light bulbs to compact fluorescents and ask yourself if you need so many lights in the first place. Plan your route when doing errands and reduce the miles you drive. Then ask yourself if your family really needs three (or more) cars. When shopping, pause long enough to consider the packaging of products and chose the product with the least packaging -- or with the most recyclable packaging. Then ask yourself if you need so much stuff in the first place.

Buy recycled products. Get out a hammer and some nails or a needle and thread and make things that you need from stuff that you've already got. Take a small portion of your lawn and replace it with native plants. Then volunteer to help with habitat restoration in your local forest preserve.

The list is endless. You'll find that once you start taking the small steps they become integral parts of your lifestyle and you will not think twice about them. Then you can take bigger steps. Those, too, will become part of your lifestyle.

When it comes time to make decisions at the polls about community issues impacting the environment, you may find yourself choosing the more earth-friendly of the alternatives. When enough voters do that, you may no longer have to vote for the lesser of two evils but for the better of two good choices.

Forced change hurts more than voluntary change does. Today's economy is forcing change on many people, and we are hurting. Nature herself may force change on all people when she's pushed passed her limits. But if we shift the paradigm, little by little, from unbridled growth and greed to stepping lightly on the earth, we just might find that it is not painful. In fact, it might even feel good. When it feels good, we can embrace the celebratory aspect of Earth Day.

Finally, forget the trendiness, dispense with tired slogans and live like your choices matter. Because they do. As one elderly American Indian once said, "Every step on earth is a prayer." That, perhaps, is the essence of Earth Day.

• Valerie Blaine lives in the woods deliberately. She is the nature programs manager for the Forest Preserve District of Kane County where Earth Day is every day. You can reach her at blainevalerie@kaneforest.com.

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