Earth Day

On this, April 22nd, 2010, Earth Day turns 40 and while the very best way to celebrate earth day is probably to watch the David Attenborough narrated DVD masterpiece on an organic solar powered television, the next best is probably to click on links about interesting earth related things. Voila:

1. First, this crazy story about Mt. Toba, a volcano that used to exist in Northern Sumatra until it exploded some 78,000 years ago. Yes, that’s right–exploded! All that is left now is an enormous lake.  Mt. Toba didn’t just erupt when it went off, it went out with a very literal bang and nearly caused the extinction of the human race, barely before it began. [via eyeweekly.com]

2. About a year or so ago I went to see Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World over at the revue. It was an absolute awe inspiring experience and immediately made Antarctica a desirable destination. It was a perfect mix of desolate beauty and breathtaking humanity, a place where society’s brilliant outcasts congregate in their search for meaning.

That interest was sparked anew with Maggie Koerth-Baker’s feature on Boing Boing about the continent. While much less epic than Herzog’s masterpiece, it’s full of lush photography and features one of the best/most unique layouts I’ve come across.

3. Over at Gawker they’re celebrating the day with a photo gallery as well, the theme: places in the world that have yet to be fucked up by incessant human greed. Lovely.

4. The nexus of Earth Day operations, earthday.org, is asking the public to submit their own “acts of green.” So far they’re collected over 31 billion vows from people to make small changes in their lives for the benefit of the planet. I like this. I much prefer the promotion of ongoing “green” activities and real personal change than initiatives like Earth Hour that, in a way, promote the attitude that “if you turn out your lights for one hour, you’re doing your part to save the planet.” Environmentalism is about being conscious of your behaviour all the time, not just an hour a year. So kudos to Earth Day for encouraging ongoing environmentalism.

5. And finally, a little love for whale poop.