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HAPPY EARTH DAY … MAYBE WE CAN DO BETTER?

By Marilyn Armstrong on 04/22/2015 • ( 14 )

Pogo – Earth Day 1971 poster – Walt Kelly

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Categories: American history, Cartoons, celebration, Ecology, Nature

Tags: cartoon, Earth Day, ecoology, Nature, Pogo, remembering, walt kelly pogo

14 replies

nonsmokingladybug
04/22/2015 • 8:53 pm

I live in an area in Ohio, on the outside of Columbus. We are around 5,000 houses, can’t get the garbage or the water from the City of Columbus, we all have to order our own garbage company. So we all do, everybody has a different one, garbage trucks are patrolling our streets every day, different companies coming to different houses. Interesting and sadly, neither one of us can recycle. Only garbage..nothing else. It bothers me so much. It’s 2015 and our area can’t recycle, isn’t it a shame?

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- Marilyn Armstrong
  04/22/2015 • 9:44 pm
  
  We have the same problem. We can recycle, but they are just going to put it all into the dump anyway. We are also in one of those places that lacks facilities, so you can do the whole thing, but when you’re done, nobody wants it. That isn’t uncommon, even in big cities. We had the same problem in Boston. We didn’t know until one of the neighbors saw the recycling trucks dumping the recycled stuff with all the rest of the trash.
  
  We have too much garbage. Too few uses for “recyclable” materials. Most recyclable stuff winds up in dumps.
  
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Raewyn's Photos
04/22/2015 • 4:28 pm

1971- has anything really changed? The population has increased, our rubbish has increased – but it has changed for the worse – I’m thinking of e-rubbish which is so toxic.

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- Marilyn Armstrong
  04/22/2015 • 4:32 pm
  
  We are certainly more conscious and aware of pollution, but like you, I don’t think we are nearly aware enough of the impact of garbage. You are right about the increased toxicity of modern trash. Batteries are such a big part of that and people just toss them away. I am not as good as I ought to be on other things, but at least I use ALL rechargeable batteries in everything and use no poisonous cleansers or insecticides. I started because I was watching out for the birds and our own dogs, but now, I watch out for everything … especially the well and the aquifer. I haven’t tossed a battery in the trash for more than 5 years and that’s something. I do the best I can . I know it isn’t nearly good enough. So many people don’t try at all.
  
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Garry Armstrong
04/22/2015 • 10:46 am

I think I covered the FIRST Earth Day. It was really a major local, national and international event. It was supposed to be the dawn of a new era of awareness about Mother Earth. And so it goes.

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- Marilyn Armstrong
  04/22/2015 • 11:38 am
  
  I was there, too. I’m still trying to figure out if we have gotten better or worse. I think both. Worse in some ways, better in others.
  
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  - omniclassic
    04/22/2015 • 3:14 pm
    
    For better, or worse…
    On the “news” this morning it was announced that Bisbee, AZ, a well known mining town and artistic community, had passed a measure to ban the use of plastic bags. But bless us one and all, Arizona, not to be outdone, by a mere city, and always on its toes to do what’s.., uh, best, has passed a measure “banning” bans on plastic bags. I live in a wonderfully confusing state here in the wild wild west. But, at least, now we know we’ve done “BETTER”, immediately followed by “WORSE.”
    
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    - Marilyn Armstrong
      04/22/2015 • 4:50 pm
      
      I love it. I just love it. This nation is so totally politically screwed. We have liberal morons in Massachusetts who, in their own special way, are as moronic as your Arizona political morons. There is something bizarrely comforting in this.
      
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      - omniclassic
        04/23/2015 • 3:05 am
        
        Yeah!…, we know we’re not like them. I watched “Nova” tonight talking about the huge mystery of the Universe. Again, I was slapped in the face realizing just how insignificant we really are in the grand scheme of things. These people, political morons and liberal morons, they think they are important.., have they got another think coming!
        
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        Marilyn Armstrong
        04/23/2015 • 10:24 am
        
        If they were thinkers, they would not BE morons. That’s the whole problem. They move their lips, but do not engage their brains.
        
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Kriti
04/22/2015 • 8:36 am

such an awesome way to depict your thoughts.

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- Marilyn Armstrong
  04/22/2015 • 10:43 am
  
  Walt Kelly was an awesome guy 🙂
  
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Soul n Spirit
04/22/2015 • 2:35 am

Definitely. I am hopeful.

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- Marilyn Armstrong
  04/22/2015 • 10:44 am
  
  That was the very first Earth Day poster. I’d like to think we’ve made some progress since then, but I often wonder. But, we ARE still here and that’s no small thing!
  
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