Earth Day?

Let's start by making one thing clear. This is not about slagging people who really take environmental issues seriously. There are many, I know several, and they're dedicated people. But what about the rest of us? Is Earth Day about actually changing our own footprints on this slowly degrading planet?

Or is it just about making a green background on a Web page, a sort of St. Patrick's Day in April? How many of us recycle all the time? When we look to buy a new car, do we look at style, or gas mileage? How often do we use mass transit instead of driving somewhere by ourselves? Better still, how about using that bicycle sitting in our garage? 

I hate to say this, but Earth Day is not making us less selfish about how we use the planet's resources. Necessity does that. On this Earth Day, the average price of gasoline is at $3.51 a gallon. Some are predicting gas hitting the painful $4.00 plateau by summer, if that's even a plateau at this point. If anything will start to make us think greener, paying more for basics will.

Then there's the little matter of our homes. I was stunned to find out the other day that cars don't leave nearly as big an environmental footprint as buildings do. Yes, folks, our houses pollute and suck up energy at the same time. What are we prepared to do about it? 

Because thinking green for one day won't cut it.