Earth Day is Tuesday, April 22nd

Earth day was started in 1970 by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. It has attempted to put the care of our environment and natural resources into focus in America's political realm. Even today, 38 years later, we still struggle with getting our industrialists and politicians to see the need and benefit of keeping our environment clean.

If I were king for a day, I would:

1- Make electric cars mandatory by the year 2015. Good bye gas guzzlers and gas autos period.

2- Declare our energy independence from fossil fuels. We can develop an atomic bomb, put a man on the moon and win a cold war... certainly we can put together our "best and brightest" toward a common goal of sustainable, renewable energy. This would mean more (and better) solar and wind power. Also more geothermal, hydroelectric and even nuclear power.

3- Take all those who are unemployed and get them off their butts to pick up the trash, clean up the inner cities and restore our wilderness preserves. The govt is paying out welfare $$$ it's time the unemployed got a chance to earn it. Bring back FDRs CCC program.

4- Renew our infrastructure. Highways and bridges that are falling apart need to be repaired. Get with it!

5- Make recycling a high priority and make disposable items biodegradable. We need to get far away from plastics and Styrofoam containers and bring back glass and paper.

6- Make going green a good financial decision. Renewable energy should be a source of future jobs. Solar energy farms in the desert regions of the country and Wind farms in the great plains should become the norm.

7- Finding a way to purify our waters and keep them clean should become another high priority. I don't relish the thought of my tap water providing me with daily doses of Prozac or estrogen (you read the news you know what I mean). Desalination is expensive but maybe we need to look at that idea.

Editorial:

This baby boom generation has made a lifetime out of stripping the world of it's natural resources for profit and pleasure--- and using the ocean as it's toilet. They've exploited the world's riches and done nothing in return except pollute the world and grow rich while doing it. Now they're beginning to collect social security checks and will exploit that system and ride it until it goes bankrupt. They've taken no responsibility and won't. Essentially they had their cake and ate it too..... leaving the cleanup for the next generation.

Sadly I am the tail end of that generation. I'll get none of the benefits... but get to see the results of the baby boomers. The results are polluted water and air, overflowing landfills, toxic waste dumps and dwindling resources to name just a few. Rising global temperatures, droughts, floods, melting ice caps, acid rain, falling bee populations, animals becoming extinct, deforested regfinos turning to deserts, etc. I could go on but you get the picture. When a whole generation--- the "ME" generation--- arrives on scene and takes whatever it wants... if it feels good do it....

There was the "Greatest Generation" made famous by Tom Brokaw's book. They fought and won WW2. They were followed by the Baby Boomers (born 1945-1962) who will go down as the "Greediest Generation".