Earth day is upon us...

Well, today is the 39th Earth Day.

I find it a bit perplexing that as members of the world-wide ecological community, we require a single day to be set aside to celebrate the planet we live on.

And honestly, with what we have done to this planet I not sure we should be celebrating, but instead begging forgiveness and seeking penance.

So before anyone gets into a tizzy regarding whether or not global warming really exists; or whether or not owning 4 cars in a 2 driver household really contributes to sprawl; or whether or not the trickle-down theory is really the most democratic economic system; or whether or not our development choices have really led to an alarmingly high child obesity rate; or whether or not our use of coal-burning power plants in the Ohio valley has really poisoned every body of freshwater in the Northeast with mercury; or whether or not developing nations really allow rampant deforestation in the name of hyper-capitalism masked as progress; or whether or not our hyper-capitalist driven land-use choices have really destroyed important wetland ecosystems whose function is to protect low-lying areas from flooding; or whether or not our government has really allowed hyper-capitalist auto manufacturers to convince us that an efficient, low-emissions internal combustion engine is not feasible; or whether or not our nation really has the largest privately funded rail network in the world yet we can't seem to implement a reliable high-speed rail network; or whether or not in our democratic and just society that our health care system is really ranked 38th in the world just ahead of Slovenia and Cuba; or whether or not we really allow hyper-capitalists to bulldoze the mountains of West Virginia in search of cheap coal; or whether or not we really celebrate the automobile so much that when a developer actually installs sidewalks or a trail system they want a commendation from the Sierra Club; or whether or not allowing National Home Builders to mass grade, change designated land-uses and leverage their projects based solely on speculation informed by reports that their own lobbyists generate has really contributed to the crash of the housing market; or whether or not hyper-capitalist driven greed has really fueled the subprime lending market in which housewives-turned-mortgage brokers fleece unsuspecting, uninformed homebuyers into products that they could never afford; or whether or not the lack of congressional oversight is really the true culprit behind many of the misdealings of the financial crisis; or whether or not relying on the guise of religion and freedom is really a just means to slaughter innocent people with roadside bombs, dirty bombs, hazardous chemicals, conventional weapons, plutonium-enriched shells or any other means of destruction; or whether or not globalization has really led to the exportation of American-style hyper-capitalism resulting in the further socio-economic stratification of developing nations; or whether or not our coastal development choices have really placed cities, towns and residents in danger of catastrophic weather events; or whether or not saving 10-cents a month on your electricity bill really means you are living a sustainable lifestyle; or whether or not greenwashing your development project with a certified "green" checklist is really a step in the right direction for facilitating a system-wide paradigm shift; or whether or not protesting taxes when nation's survival is at stake as opposed to protesting deficit spending to invade sovereign nations based on lies is really justifiable; or whether or not the United States really has over 1,300 endangered species of plants and animals yet we continue to plan to exploit wildlife refuges for hyper-capitalist gains; I would like to remind everyone of one thing.

Everything is connected to everything else.

If there is one phrase which should become part of the American lexicon, that is it.

The sooner we accept that our actions affect the larger eco-community and that in order for our species to survive we must change our habits, the sooner we can begin celebrating Earth Day everyday of the year.

The universe is wider than our views of it. -Henry David Thoreau

Steps in the right direction...

In the past decade, the word sustainability has become a widely recognized and often misused term. Consider the fact that Google returns over 30,000,000 results for a search on the keyword "sustainability" alone. While this apparent paradigm shift is quite encouraging, the sustainability movement is moving in the wrong direction.

Granted, one must "learn to crawl before you learn to walk" and the general public is often skeptical about theories and practices that were the battle cry of the founders of Earth Day and environmental Pollyanna's throughout the end of the last century. All hope is not lost, however. Landscape Architects, a profession in which I have a tremendous amount of faith and zeal for, is not only the best equipped to further the cause of sustainability, but they have begun to take the reins of the sustainable movement.

A prime example of this new found leadership can be found in the Sustainable Sites Initiative. The Initiative has taken the lead through on an interdisciplinary team that is furthering the cause of sustainability and most importantly, landscape architects are the leaders of this multi-disciplinary team. One of the most important and hopeful features on this site is the "Standards and Guidelines Report" which the team has produced. This findings of this report will help design professionals integrate sustainable development principles into their everyday practice.

This is the direction that the movement must move towards, as opposed to convincing the public (and ourselves) that simply because a household saves 10-cents on heating costs, they have become "green" or sustainable. While this movement is still fairly new, and somewhat radical in the eyes of the general public, we must be wary of creating systems and guides that will allow and encourage more "greenwashing", which would result in businesses who truly are not practicing sustainability to be rewarded.