Long Island Landscaping Blog

We all hear the term carbon footprint and how the things we use and do impact our environment.

Yes we can turn off our lights, drive less use less hot water and turn our heat down to below 70 degrees.

We can recycle our garbage and turn waste into reusable items.

All that is fine and good but only a small part of what can be done to preserve and protect what most of us know and love ! The wonders nature.

Today after talking to a friend of mine Steve Cissel
Founder and chief executive officer of the
Green Industry Yellow pages and
10-20media.com

I was introduced to a new term at least to me it was new “ Oxygen footprint “ .

Wile conserving energy and reducing our dependency on oil is a good start it is only a small part of the bigger picture.

You may be familiar with the earth day movement that has become so popular in this country.

But have you ever heard about the green movement ? .

My best guess is probably less than 30% of you have and if you have know very little about it.

The green movement does not mean painting a building green or flying a green flag or planting a single flower or tree.

The green movement go’s hand and hand with reducing the carbon footprint that we produce and at the same time provides a “ Oxygen footprint “ .

There is a industry at work behind the scenes that goes unrecognized and unnoticed that has been and continues to optimize the “ Oxygen footprint “ and buy doing so unknowingly has had a major impact on reducing our “carbon footprint “

That industry is the Landscape Industry known now for years as the Green industry.

Even as The Green industry is highly diversified every segment of the trade has a positive effect on our environment in some way big or small .

From the company who cuts your lawn and recycles your grass to the company that designs and installs you new Landscape to the nursery that grows the plants we install and the sod farms that produce the high quality grass we all desire.

This publication and this feed is not intended to promote my business , it’s intent is to encourage you to take a active roll and do your part for a strong and healthy environment for this generation and the generations to come.

You may ask what can I a single person do that will have any effect on the “ Oxygen footprint “ in the short or long term?.

Take this into consideration !

Not wanting to get into politicks .

But think of the results and impact it could/would make if the same energy /effort was put into the green movement as is put into the anti war movement.

What ! am I some kind of nut job ?

Possibly you be the judge.

But before you rule remember my mention above of Earth day ?

Guess how it got started ?.

In short.

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". . . on April 22, 1970, Earth Day was held, one of the most remarkable happenings in the history of democracy. . . "

-American Heritage Magazine, October 1993

How the First Earth Day Came About

By Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day

What was the purpose of Earth Day? How did it start? These are the questions I am most frequently asked.

Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political "limelight" once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour. I flew to Washington to discuss the proposal with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who liked the idea. So did the President. The President began his five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.

I continued to speak on environmental issues to a variety of audiences in some twenty-five states. All across the country, evidence of environmental degradation was appearing everywhere, and everyone noticed except the political establishment. The environmental issue simply was not to be found on the nation's political agenda. The people were concerned, but the politicians were not.

After President Kennedy's tour, I still hoped for some idea that would thrust the environment into the political mainstream. Six years would pass before the idea that became Earth Day occurred to me while on a conservation speaking tour out West in the summer of 1969. At the time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, called "teach-ins," had spread to college campuses all across the nation. Suddenly, the idea occurred to me - why not organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment?

I was satisfied that if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but worth a try.

At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air - and they did so with spectacular exuberance. For the next four months, two members of my Senate staff, Linda Billings and John Heritage, managed Earth Day affairs out of my Senate office.

Five months before Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the astonishing proliferation of environmental events:

"Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam...a national day of observance of environmental problems...is being planned for next spring...when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in'...coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned...."

It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grassroots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U.S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. In mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D.C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities.

Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself. “ What was the purpose of Earth Day? How did it start? These are the questions I am most frequently asked. Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political "limelight" once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour. I flew to Washington to discuss the proposal with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who liked the idea. So did the President. The President began his five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day. I continued to speak on environmental issues to a variety of audiences in some twenty-five states. All across the country, evidence of environmental degradation was appearing everywhere, and everyone noticed except the political establishment. The environmental issue simply was not to be found on the nation's political agenda. The people were concerned, but the politicians were not. After President Kennedy's tour, I still hoped for some idea that would thrust the environment into the political mainstream. Six years would pass before the idea that became Earth Day occurred to me while on a conservation speaking tour out West in the summer of 1969. At the time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, called "teach-ins," had spread to college campuses all across the nation. Suddenly, the idea occurred to me - why not organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment? I was satisfied that if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but worth a try. At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air - and they did so with spectacular exuberance. For the next four months, two members of my Senate staff, Linda Billings and John Heritage, managed Earth Day affairs out of my Senate office. Five months before Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the astonishing proliferation of environmental events: "Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam...a national day of observance of environmental problems...is being planned for next spring...when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in'...coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned...." It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grassroots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U.S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. In mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D.C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities. Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself. “

That was then and this is now and wile the protests are of a war of a different nature today we have a massive advantage ! The ability to get a message to hundreds of millions of concerned people in a matter of minutes even seconds .

Your looking at that advantage right now this publication and it’s rss and atom feed.

As you know if your reading this you can make contact with a unlimited amount of concerned people with the push of a single keyboard button via E-Mail with virtually no effort and no cost and reduce  the carbon footprint and help the “ Oxygen footprint “ no paper or ink required.

I have asked Steve Cissel to contribute to this publication and to provide a link to his new message board that will soon be on line and he has agreed.

I invite you to return to this site for that and other updates

Sal Mortilla

Landscaping Unlimited

Long Island New York