How much play do you think Earth Day will get in the MSM this year?

[Ron Green]

I believe that awareness of planetary health issues is the highest ever among the general American population, what with gas prices, unusual weather and global hunger as mainstream stories. What do you think are the chances that Earth Day 2006 will serve as an occasion for thematic coverage and discussion of the really big picture, that is our home the earth and its prospects?

Or will rape, murder and kidnapping rule the day?

[bluerum]

1. Ha ha ha. Thanks for the laugh! nt

[LA lady]

2. sad

Unless the Earth is convicted of killing Natalee Holloway, not much

[saltpoint]

3. I hope it gets as much or more as it does in the average 8th grade

Earth Science course. Which is quite a bit.

It is an essential issue.

If Environmentalism were to enjoy a roaring comeback (and it may given the hurricane and global warming debate), Al Gore is well-positioned to be the leader of the free world.

Environmental awareness and global stewardship are no longer options. And we might as well have qualified people in charge. That would mean no Republicans, or at least very, very few.

Certainly no Bush Republicans.

[Ron Green]

6. This is why leadership is so important. Simply having someone in high

office whose awareness is equal to 8th grade earth science and who is willing to talk about it even once a week would make an enormous difference here and abroad, and for many years to come. The renewable energy industry is poised to become a huge economic engine, one that would breath life into weary spirits as well as bottom lines.

[saltpoint]

7. Hear, hear, Ron_Green. I'm glad you're on our team.

Agree with every syllable.

[cassiepriam]

4. If we can get the Earth to have illicit sex with a Dem, we can count

on front page coverage for 8 years and $millions spent investigating it.

Otherwise forget it, a story about the death of the planet and the end of civilization is a yawn, Americans not interested....

[Ron Green]

8. I think the greatest achievement (albeit a harmful one) of the Free Market

has been to separate so many people from the realities of their existence - the earth, life and death, the stillness of the soul, the universal spirit - by selling instant gratification, cheap in the short term and damn near unaffordable in the long run.

[cassiepriam]

9. Yes when people knew that the land produced their food,

gave them shelter, nourished their souls and bodies they had more
respect for it.

With our throw away mentality we assume we can always just go to WalMart and get a new one, might not be so easy to get another planet Earth.

[realFedUp]

5. you'll have to watch a golf game to see our national wetlands....

:eyes:

[Jim Warren]

10. Heart of the matter

IMHO this is one of the most compelling and succinct sentences I've read in four years on this board.

I think the greatest achievement (albeit a harmful one) of the Free Market
has been to separate so many people from the realities of their existence - the earth, life and death, the stillness of the soul, the universal spirit - by selling instant gratification, cheap in the short term and damn near unaffordable in the long run.

[Ron Green]

12. Thanks for saying so.

One thing that's really important to me is the necessity for other institutions to keep the reins on the Free Market. The Market is a great thing, but despite what Libertarians would wish, we've got to govern it with the State and the Church (this idea is abhorred by many DUers, who know only that religion has done much harm.) My idea of the Church is much broader than that, and really identifies the whole spiritual life of a people, including everything from meditative groups to charities. Just as the engine of the Market makes things happen, the tenets of the Church prescribe that higher principles are followed, and of course the agency of the State makes it so. We need all 3, but it's a hard sell sometimes among all these young lions, God bless 'em.

[Sparkman]

11. NO battery powered cars, corporations expect TAXES pay 4 superfund cleanup

AND the government bureaucracies are powerless to stop useless military polluters while foreign countries have to HOST U.S. corporate polluters waste product with no buffer zones or help from U.S. government. Why is it that cancer is highest in the U.S. and dangerous products remain on the shelves for DECADES? Are "Americans" greedy, stupid or victims? Can we be all three?