Earth Day

Tomatoes grown organically in my backyard last summer.

This year I am commemorating Earth Day by:

• walking to the pet store to buy natural cat food--taking my own shopping bag, of course.
• waiting eagerly for my new worm bin to arrive.
• anticipating the day I can safely transfer my vegetable seed starts into my garden.
• having taken part in a park clean-up on Saturday.
• making a donation to the America's Wetland Foundation.

I would love to make some grand gestures like putting solar panels on my roof, installing an on-demand hot water system, or planting a roof garden, but those things may be impractical, at least for now. In the meantime, I try to do what I can to preserve our resources by recycling, installing fluorescent bulbs where it makes sense to do so, and using a front-loading washing machine. I think this will be the year we finally replace our drafty, dirty, inefficient windows with more energy-saving versions, so by the time winter rolls back around (though I'm not entirely sure it has actually left as the weather people were calling for snow last night), we might save a bit on heating.

I was planning to go see Earth which was opening in theaters today, but I heard the directors on Fresh Air this morning, and I got weepy just hearing them describe one poor little elephant's fate. That one may have to wait.