Saturday, April 26, 2008

On Behalf of Mama Earth

Earth Day, April 22, came and went again this week. According to one source twenty million people celebrated the first Earth Day in 1970. President Nixon gave us the Environmental Protection Agency that year and Congress amended the Clean Air Act to set national air quality, auto emissions, and anti-pollution standards.

I am still curious why the so-called "founders" of Earth Day 1970 actually switched it from the Vernal Equinox, which has been historically honored as Earth Day for more than three thousand years, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. When Secretary-General U Thant in 1971 signed a U.N. Earth Day Proclamation on March 21, 1971, he must not have been paying attention to those press releases the year before that announced it had been moved to April 22.

For me personally, I don’t really care what date is officially Earth Day. What's more important is a lifestyle commitment. If you still pour out your used motor oil in the back yard, I don’t care how many Earth Day ceremonies you’ve been to, you obviously don’t “get it.”

There’s a school of philosophy that says in essence “what is is what is.” It is a somewhat fatalistic approach to life and reality. It implies powerlessness, as if to say that we have no power to change things, so why bother, as if we are victims of Fate.

I would suggest that we have far more power than we realize to make a difference. It begins with this commitment: I will do what I can in the realms where I am able.

I’m not trying to make this into a moral issue. But in point of fact, if human beings don't take care of the earth, you won’t see sheep, chimps or elephants stepping up to take the lead. The responsibility is ours, both collectively and individually.

SHAMELESS PLUG FOR MY COMPANY
What this means is, we need to learn more about what we can do. We’ve all seen the lists. Turn lights off in unoccupied rooms, use energy-efficient appliances, etc. One item not usually listed is to use a premium synthetic oil and extend intervals between oil changes. Fact: AMSOIL synthetic motor oils last longer than conventional petroleum motor oils. The net benefits to our environment on this alone include less packaging waste and less waste oil to dispose of.

But the benefits of AMSOIL synthetics go further than this. The best synthetics clean the engine so it runs in a more optimal manner. The net result is improved fuel economy. That is, cars can use less fuel to go the same distance. If every car and truck were switched to premium synthetic motor oils, the savings alone would enable a vehicle could go to the sun and back (186 million miles round trip) so many times that it would blow your mind.

I am not makng this up.

No comments:

Post a Comment