Maybe you’re dreading Earth Day. If you’re aware of the colossal problems facing the environment and are already trying to minimize your carbon footprint, Earth Day can seem tiring and pointless.

Writing for AdAge, Natalie Zmuda argues that Earth Day has become a commercialized holiday for which corporations dress themselves up as eco-friendly to drive profits. “It’s nearly Earth Day: Time to consume more to save the planet,” Zmuda writes. “It seems that just about everyone has found a way to attach themselves to what is fast becoming a marketing holiday that barely resembles the grassroots event founded in 1970.”

But Lloyd Alter at TreeHugger doesn’t think we should give up on Earth Day just yet. “Sixty percent of Americans believe that global warming has begun to affect the climate,” Alter writes. “That is enough to change a government, and we should take every Earth Day to encourage the small incremental changes in people that add up to an environmentally aware majority that understands the impacts of their actions and behavior.”

The folks at Earth Day Network agree. It’s unclear how many people will celebrate Earth Day in 2008, but Earth Day Network estimates its campaigns alone involve half a billion people worldwide each year. That’s half a billion chances to increase support for environmental programs. Many people will observe the holiday with one-time events like concerts and rallies, but some programs will have a broader impact. The city of San Francisco will begin allowing residents to recycle more types of plastics for regular home pick-up, including toys and containers not traditionally recycled.

If you want to join in on the festivities, check out search engines from the Environmental Protection Agency, Earth Day Network, and Envirolink to find an event near you. And for those who want to stay green after April 22 has come and gone, check out TreeHugger’s Go Green Guides for extensive tip sheets on how to green all aspects of your life.

—Sarah Pumroy

Image by  Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory, licensed under Wikimedia Commons. 

How angry would you be if President George W. Bush gave a speech in your community on Earth Day? I would be angry. For one, the eco-hostile president has a lot of nerve giving any speech at all on Earth Day, given his environmental track record. I’d be even more upset if his speech applauded an environmental initiative that has succeeded without government assistance. But that’s just what President Bush did in Wells, Maine, a town of some 10,000 people, including writer Michelle Cacho-Negrete. Her account of the maddening presidential oration, “In My House” (excerpt only available online), was published in The Sun, winner of a 2007 Utne Independent Press Award in the category of best writing.

Bush chose to speak at Laudholm Farm, a 1,600-acre nature reserve, because it had excelled with little governmental support. “Sure enough, during his speech,” Cacho-Negrete writes, “Bush would say, ‘Good conservation and stewardship do not rely on the government, and Laudholm Farm is a great example of people seizing the initiative.’ ” As Cacho-Negrete struggles with her decision to protest Bush’s speech and the farm’s decision to welcome his visit, she eloquently describes feelings of futility, anger, and guilt over the current administration’s dealings with the environment.

“None of my friends voted for Bush, yet every single one of them, like me, experiences some guilt simply by virtue of being an American,” she writes. “We are a nation ripped apart, furious with each other, half of us racked with remorse, half of us drenched in smug certainty, nearly all of us wondering what went wrong.”

—Sarah Pumroy