Women at work and their tips, challenges, advice, complaints, and experiences

Ah yes, it's upon us again: Earth Day.

It all began in 1970, so to speak: a focus on preserving resources and trying to figure out a sustainable way of living and keeping up with the Joneses without destroying everything.  Not like the folks of my grandparents' generation didn't know about making do with what they had, reusing and repairing as much as possible; being thankful for hand-me-downs and passing along unneeded items to those who would use and be grateful for them; growing Victory Gardens and composting their kitchen scraps; limiting purchases of new products to those that were truly "needs" vs. those that were shiny, pretty wants; ohhhh how the list goes on.

While I'm a pretty Crunchy Con (as per the definition in the recently released Crunchy Cons book), I take exception to the idea floating around in the press that Earth Day is a day to teach little kindergartners to reduce, reuse, recycle.  Screw that.  Teach them EVERY DAY.

And as for Earth Day being the day we, the hard-working masses, should attempt to green our offices by using post-consumer recycled paper products and bringing our own coffee mugs and Sigg bottles to the watercooler - well now.  Hmph.  Yet again, it makes no difference if it's ONE DAY OUT OF THE YEAR.

It's all well and good to be visibly green, but personally I'm sick and tired of the guilt trips being laid on Average Joe Citizen by the celebritieis and politicos who are tooling around in their Smug Mobiles (er, hybrids) and touting their recent farmers market trip for organic produce while very promptly having their chef whip things up in a McMansion worth millions.  

Let's stop and think about how many tons of CO2 we'd save if the celebrities not only turned off the lights but BUILT SMALLER HOUSES.   Oh, but that's asking a little much. 

If you really want to do the world a favor, pop on by websites like Green Mom Finds, Green & Clean Mom, EarthDay.gov, and other such resources.  (Don't forget to check my Easy Environmentalism archives for super duper EASY ways to work on the process too!)  Then start taking baby steps to celebrating Earth Day 20 years from now with your grandkids - by planting a garden that will help you all be self-reliant instead of looking to the fancy grocer down the street for your organic tomatoes and ToFurkey. 

If you start to get tired of the "greenies" trying to guilt trip you into what you could do better, just think about the things you're already doing just fine.