Every Thursday I write something timely for you “near and dear to my heart” readers, because I recognize the importance of time-sensitive events, consistency of effort in delivery of those ideas, and the impact that well-communicated knowledge can have on the spread of said positive ideas in the world.

In fact, conveniently enough (almost too conveniently), I watched a TED Talk video earlier this week about the common thread of successful of TED Talks, as delivered by Chris Anderson. Anderson tells us that the key to a good communication is bringing singularly focused ideas to the table and within a context the general populace can understand. Then new patterns can form and you can positively effect someone’s personal world view. If you can provide examples to make them care all the better.

You see dear readers, an idea is effectively a pattern of information that helps you understand and navigate the world. Not unlike a set of instructions. If you’re more visual think of a blueprint or a road map. If you are more tactile think of a puzzle. And if you’re an auditory learn, the best example I can drum up is a group of musicians using music and lyrics to formulate a song.

If ideas are communicated properly and worth sharing, they have the ability to change how someone thinks about the world. And so today I want to write about something rather serious and also kinda polar bear-izing. I mean polarizing.

And that’s “probably” the only joke I’m going to make today.

Did you know that today marks the 46th eve of the first Earth Day? Earth Day was invented on April 22 in 1970 amongst Americans as a way of consolidating the efforts of various activist groups who were fighting for environmental issues; mainly through protest. It was long overdue even then but what was most fascinating about the first Earth Day is that it woke up so many people to the idea of pollution from major industry (oil spills, toxic dumps, pesticides), deforestation, and ozone loss.

People make fun of celebrity activists like Pearl Jam, Leonardo DiCaprio, James Cameron, Brad Pitt, Darryl Hannah, and Cate Blanchett for supporting these types of causes, but the reality is that human beings do mess up their environment. All the time. And it’s not exclusive to individuals nor is it entirely the fault of large organizations.

Earth Day is important because it reminds us to celebrate the planet Earth. We live on it and use it, and no regardless of religion, colour, creed, nationality or political leanings, we all have to work together to keep this place liveable. Around the world many cities have community service initiatives in place on April 22 to ensure that we can each do our part to plant trees and nurture the landscape, especially in areas heavy with litter and pollution. The phrase “think globally and act locally” is pretty useful to help provide context.

And for the sake of learning, I will use visual artists to demonstrate the importance and ease in which you can implement these strategies. If you can cut down on your own eco footprint, you should do it. Recycle your paper based source material, make trips to pick up art supplies infrequent to save on gas use, and properly dispose of your oils and mediums by visiting eco stations rather than dumping in the garbage. In fact, if you are subtle you could probably even find scrap materials AT the eco stations which can be used in art work. Which in my books, is a win-win.

But what do you think? Do you have strategies to cut down on your eco footprint that I haven’t mentioned? What are your concerns with Earth Day and how do you celebrate? Please leave some comments, I don’t bite!

I’m out of theories for the week friends, so I’ll see you on Sunday with something stimulating.

Tim!