Easy Earth Day Action

Earth
Day is almost over. Almost, but not quite. There's still time to
register with the Nature Conservancy, thus joining thousands
of others who want to preserve the wildness in which Henry David
Thoreau saw the “preservation of the world.”

You don't have to join the organization (though it's a good one to join); you don't have to give them any money (though I doubt they'd return it if you offered.) Nor is this one of those awful on-line bait and switch operations, one of those “just-a-few-minutes-of-your-time” buttons that whisks you to a form where you scroll endlessly on and on, divulging more personal information than you generally share with your spouse and more sixteen-digit numbers than you realized could be attached to one person, most of which, of course, you have to dig out of the back of some envelope at the bottom of the last desk drawer you try, and all of which must be typed in without dashes or spaces, a dyslexic's nightmare and a bad dream for the rest of us.

No, these folks ask for two things: your name, and your e-mail address. Then the form goes away. You're done. The form pops up when you go to the Nature Conservancy's home page.

They've also put together a Top 5 Earth Day Action List, which I'll reprint here. The links take you to pages on their special Earth Day site, where you'll find expanded discussions of each of these topics. (Check out #3, on gardening!)

1. Use Reusable Bags http://earthday.nature.org/reuse/
— Hundreds of thousands of marine animals die every year from ingesting plastic bags #EarthDay http://bit.ly/cCww8r

2. Eat Sustainably http://earthday.nature.org/sustain/
–You eat fish even when you don’t: 36% of world's fisheries catch is used to feed farm animals #EarthDay http://bit.ly/asiJjO

3. Green Your Gardening http://earthday.nature.org/garden/
–Plant native species – they require less fertilizer, which can seep into oceans! #EarthDay http://bit.ly/aSwOhb

4. Adopt A Coral Reef http://adopt.nature.org/coralreef/bahamas/
–70% of all Earth’s coral reefs will be destroyed by 2050, act now! #EarthDay http://bit.ly/bs7Sp4

5. See Oceans, Save Oceans http://nature.org/disney
–See OCEANS (4/22-4/28) & a portion of ticket sales benefits Conservancy’s work on coral reefs #EarthDay http://bit.ly/cYENDQ

*Bonus – General Earth Day messaging http://earthday.nature.org/
–It's time to celebrate Earth Day's 40th anniversary. We're asking you to help protect oceans. #EarthDay http://bit.ly/aPZPWY

We gardeners spend a lot of time with earth. Take a moment out for the big one, Earth.