Last night, my family and I watched the sunset bloom. None of these photos is processed other than a crop. Pure magic at the World's Fair Pavilion, Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri. Click on the photos for enlargements.
I wandered around at this year's St. Louis Earth Day celebration with a camcorder to capture some of the many images and sounds. I boiled my raw video down into two short videos, each of them lasting about five minutes. The first one is the "fun" video--you'll see what I mean. I'm assuming that some of the scenes at Forest Park will give you a smile or leave you shaking your head. Free hugs, anyone? Or how about some sound therapy? And do consider the computerized body analysis administered to me by a chiropractic group working really (really) hard to sell me their long-term services. BTW, I took their test assuming that any legit test would pick up on a rather serious condition I'm dealing with--half of my left hand has gone numb and my left arm is at 1/2 strength due to a pinched nerve; it's so bad that I'm almost certain to have neck surgery in a few weeks. But the elaborate computerized scan didn't pick up on that major issue. I did learn that my gall bladder is in great shape, however. Editing down these videos, I was surprised at how much music one can hear at the festival. Musician Leslie Sanazaro, who has often promoted "green" issues, is featured at the end of this first video (a few months ago, I produced a three-part interview with Leslie). Enjoy! Now for the "serious" interview. Among all the people attending the fair were a few contractors who sell products and services that can really make a dent in the amount of energy used by your home. The first half of this short video features a firm (Home Green Home) that does elaborate energy audits for about $400. According to Marc Bluestone, up-front cost would be a bargain based on the amount of energy you can save (more than 20% of your energy bills). The second firm, Missouri Solar Living, installs solar equipment for water heating and electricity. You'll hear some compelling facts and figures, especially about solar hot water. Note: I don't know any more about these two firms than you'll see on this videotape, but I did enjoy meeting these guys at Earth Day and I appreciated hearing energy-saving information from two companies who are actually doing substantial work out in the field.
This is a favorite spot of mine. It's called the Grand Basin and it's located in the middle Forest Park in the City of St. Louis, Missouri. I enjoyed this image of the area because it contains views of some rather large objects (like the St. Louis Art Museum and…
The best way to get people to neglect a cause is to dedicate a Special Day to that cause each year. On that one special Day, we will hold thousands festivals where we treat the cause in a trite way and we will ignore that cause the other 364 days. We’re just too busy with our amusements and distractions to give a damn about important things here in America. Earth Day fits the mold perfectly. You would think that at Earth Day festivals, people would take the purpose of Earth Day seriously. You’d think that people would feel the need to make substantial immediate changes in their lives in order to live and procreate in healthy and sustainable ways, leaving the planet in good shape for the following generations of humans and the other animals. 
What could be done on Earth Day? We could talk big. We could make real plans to take the actions suggested by visionaries like Lester Brown, who proposes that we cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2020. It could really be done. Here’s how Brown describes his plan in his book, Plan B 3.0:
First, dramatically and systematically raise the efficiency of the world energy economy; second, massive investment in renewable sources of energy; and third, increase the earth’s tree cover by planting billions of trees.
Really doing something on a big scale could “inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth’s environment.” But most people aren’t doing anything at all. They …
(Click on the photo to enlarge image.) I enjoyed this image of geese in Forest Park (St. Louis, Missouri), so stopped the car and I took this photo. We don't seem to have much snow in St. Louis anymore, so picturesque winter scenes are especially fun when they do occur.