Editor's note: We're pleased to welcom Tiffany Washko to the GO blog! Tiffany writes for GNMParents (among others), and her biweekly pieces that we'll publish here are one half of a content swap we're doing with that site. In this case, we'll be trading original pieces: our "Green Family Values" writer Jennifer Lance will be fulfilling our half of the obligation at GNMParents — you can find her first post here.

Earth Day has come and gone now. Hopefully you spent the day with your family like I did, reaffirming your dedication to environmental causes through one or more activities designed to unite us all in the love for our one home — earth.

But now that the official day has passed, does that mean Earth Day is over? Is it out of mind now? Hopefully it is not. As an avid environmentalist I choose to look at Earth Day as a true holiday for treehuggers. It is one day that I can show my "true colors" so to speak and not have everyone in my community look at me as though I have fallen off my rocker — even when I am wearing my old ragtag tie-dye T-shirt that says "World Peace" and I am scouring the park with my kids looking for garbage to pick up. Earth Day means a lot to me but it does not end after the sun rises on April 23rd. Instead I choose to see Earth Day as something like New Year's for environmentalists and their agendas. It is a day to make resolutions so that every day can be Earth Day.

So after the festivities of Earth Day have died down I sit with my family and we make a list of all the ways we want to improve our current activities and our lifestyle to make them more planet friendly. My children are quite young so usually they concentrate on just one thing. My six-year-old son has picked his resolution. He wants to pack zero waste lunches for school.

My husband, who is not an environmentalist my any means, has the goal to drive less and walk more. This means walking to the post office, library, DMV, etc and take advantage of the community we chose to call home and the ease with which one CAN walk instead of driving. I am sure that since gas prices are also incredibly high, he sees the money savings as an added benefit.

I also have a few areas that I need to concentrate on this year. For one, I want to concentrate more on reusables. I got a jump on things by purchasing a few more Klean Kanteen bottles, some Wrap-N-Mats, laptop lunchboxes, cloth napkins and canvas grocery totes. These items easily replace their disposable counterparts while not sacrificing comfort or style.

I am also going to switch my regular grocery day to Friday so that I can attend the Farmer's market every Thursday and stock up on fresh, local produce and then plan our meals and our additional grocery needs around that. This way we will be eating in a more sustainable way and helping our local economy.

This year I want to increase the amount of food I grow and to help do that I am enlisting the kids with the some clever garden projects. One such project will be the making of a pizza garden by separating out a 12 food wide circular area and making slices with string and then planting all of the ingredients for our homemade pizzas (tomatoes, garlic, onions, basil, peppers, etc.) in the different planting areas. When harvest comes we will be able to pick our pizza ingredients fresh from the garden and make our pizzas together.

And of course I have a few small resolutions such as my intent to put an egg timer next to the shower and start taking two minute showers and to bring more plants into the house to act as natural air cleaners.

Now that we have a plan, Earth Day doesn't need to end. April 22nd is a holiday and a reminder. It is the day that we revive our environmental goals and evaluate our current lifestyles and see clearly all the areas where we can lighten our environmental footprint and do more in our individual communities. Don't let the enthusiasm that Earth Day brings die down in the aftermath — every day can be Earth Day in your homes and hearts.

So what are your resolutions for this "new year"?

Tiffany - the NatureMom

Judging from reports coming in today, this year's Earth Day celebrations were among the largest and most optimistic in recent memory. Largest — thanks to attention being focused on climate change by movies like An Inconvenient Truth; and most optimistic — thanks to you.

Things happen when people get together. That's nothing new, of course, but people are finally uniting behind the idea of sustainable change.

The job ahead

It won't be easy. It won't be fast. But even if you set aside the entire issue of climate change and its controversies, we face a century of growing populations, shifting food and water supplies, increasingly fragile oceans, and the certainty that the age of cheap, plentiful petroleum energy will soon be behind us.

These are global-sized challenges. I spent some time this weekend answering comments on Lighter Footstep and elsewhere about whether or not a single person can make any difference when you consider the scale of the problem.

Ever heard this?

"Changing your air conditioning filter?" wrote one commenter on a major social bookmarking site. "It's feel-good nonsense to suggest anything like that matters when you have China and India opening coal power plants faster than we can even clean ours up. It's stupid."

One one level, he's right. Pulling a bit more efficiency out of your home cooling system is a drop in the bucket when you think of big energy-wasters — such as lit, climate-controlled office parks which stand unused outside the work day. Open freezer cases at the grocery. Or all the unnecessary travel which happens in cities without adequate public transportation.

But he's also wrong — very wrong — on two important fronts.

First: Sustainability is personal. Resources are getting tight. Things are becoming more expensive. By identifying more sustainable ways of conducting your life and lowering your overall environmental footstep, you (or your business) reap immediate personal benefits. You don't have to wait for government or big industry. Start saving money, living healthier, and making better use of the things you already own by taking that first step toward Sustainability.

Second: Global change is generational change. Admittedly, there are some things that need to be done as quickly as possible to make sure the 21st Century is a landmark, rather than a headstone. But it took the Industrial Revolution and a couple centuries of abuse to get our soil, air, and water to their current state. Maybe it will take as long to put it back. It's also taken us decades to teach our children that thoughtless consumption is an acceptable way of life.

Small now, big later

So every time we purchase a CFL, cut our water use, and carry home our groceries in reusable bags, we're making an investment in the future. If we can pass these habits to our kids — and if they do the same — a single act of conservation in the present will be multiplied manyfold through the years. That's not just a low-flow showerhead you're installing: it's a warehouse full of earth-friendly technology that hasn't been invented yet.

That's what happens when people come together and commit to change. Even the small ones.

The Green Web is amazingly vibrant. New sites and blogs pop up every day. Lighter Footstep and Green Options have experienced what could only be described as explosive growth. Our readership expands from week to week.

This is all happening one person at a time — one idea at a time; one intention to make a positive change at a time.

And that's how we're going to make Earth Day happen every day.

—-

Chris Baskind writes about environmental issues. He's also the publisher of Lighter Footstep, a web-based magazine devoted to Sustainability and learning to live more lightly.

Atlanta: Arms Around Atlanta sounds like a blast. It's all going down at Grant Park on Saturday & Sunday.

Boston: Clean Up the Charles on Saturday, April 21!

Chicago: Check out Green Festival happening all weekend long! Green vendors & organizations galore!

Dallas: Run, don't walk to downtown today for EarthFest from 10am - 2pm.

Denver: Visit the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and enjoy yourself at their Earth Day Renewable Energy Expo April 21-22.

Houston: The Houston Zoo is celebrating Earth Day all weekend - family fun.

Los Angeles: Lots to choose from. Clean Rivers, go to a Conscious Living Fair, or Let Worms Eat Your Garbage!

Miami: Check out EarthFest:WaterFest Gone Green a full day of music, eco-village, food, and fun. (Organized by yours truly.)

New York: Choose from a variety of events, and don't forget the slideshow in Grand Central!

San Francisco: Get on over to East Bay on Saturday and have fun at the Berkeley Earth Day Festival.

Seattle: Do a little Earth Day tour and check out several events this weekend in Seattle.

Washington, D.C.: Go to GreenDC Week Earth Day Celebration or check out some other events.

I didn't mention your city? Search for local events at Earth Day Network or EnviroLink.

Rather not party it up? Do something green like a beach clean-up or planting a tree.

This week's guests coincide with Earth Day. Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Stephen L. Johnson, will host Ask the White House on Friday at 3p ET to discuss Earth Day, and Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne will be available on Tuesday, April 24 for national park week.

Any one is invited to submit a question. I did. Even though it says he will discuss Earth Day, I thought I'd ask Johnson for a response to the Supreme Court decision earlier in the month. My question:

Will the EPA move forward with steps to regulate vehicle emissions given the recent Supreme Court decision that found the agency has authority under the Clean Air Act to do so?

In looking at some of the archived transcripts from previous Ask the White House Q&A sessions (topics with officials on Sudan and on Urban Development), there's nothing interactive about it. Although it is touted as 'live' it is definitely not a live chat (if you've ever been on IM with more than a few people you know it can get a little crazy). The format is straightforward Q&A with a few questions that have been hand picked by White House staffers and are more than likely answered ahead of time.

I'm guessing that they'll choose safe questions and respond accordingly with diplomatic answers, and they'll probably take the opportunity to address popular criticisms surrounding the EPA. I am curious to see what questions they field (and if they answer mine). I'll check in on Friday to see and give an update on Saturday.

We thought we'd take the opportunity of one Earth Day to remind you about the other. The fact that green is a hot topic right now, we expect big things of this year's (April 22nd) Earth Day. Find out what is going on in your city, and how you can help.

This Earth Day let's all take the opportunity to really reach the message to new audiences, be it families with small children, young adults, or single professionals. We "greenies" seek out eco-friendly information. This Earth Day let's get the word out to people that might not have been looking so hard for it.

First, find out what events are being planned in your local area. Search the Earth Day Network or Envirolink's Earth Day list. These may not be complete, so if you don't find anything, check with your local government or environmental organizations and see if they are planning anything.

If you find an event, offer to help. Many of these events are created by grassroots organizations or groups that are stretched very thin. Maybe they need help finding local green companies and organizations for booths in an eco-village. Maybe they need help with PR. Perhaps they wanted to get a local school involved and haven't been able to tackle that yet. Or maybe they just need volunteers for the day of the event. So go on, offer to help! What most events will need are more hands and brains - and we know you've got that!

Now if you didn't have any luck finding an Earth Day event near you, consider starting on up! You've only got a month to go, so we would recommend to keep it a manageable scope, but you can do it. Check out the Earth Day Network's Earth Day in a Box, including an Organizer's Guide (pdf).

Happy Equinoctial Earth Day! Have fun and get involved!

Rebecca says: I am working on planning EarthFest, a big Earth Day celebration in the Miami area for Sunday, April 22. It is a big undertaking and we could use all of the help that we can get. Thus, today's Tip! I'm sure we're not the only ones. We're trying to take the opportunity to really push the limits of people's minds on how to reduce waste, and really inspire people to think about the most basic of actions. Can you do an 8 hour event in sunny Miami without water bottles? We hope to find a way.

Want to hear a tip on a certain topic? Have a tip to share? Suggest a tip and you may just see it soon as a Tip o' the Day!