For those of you who don’t know, today is Earth Day. I remember, as a child, schools would take this opportunity to talk about things like not letting the water run when you brush your teeth, turning off the lights when you leave the room, and, oddly enough, why we should walk or bike to get around (how else did kids get around when their moms did not want to drive!?).

But, as both I and Earth Day get older, I see the value in what those tree-hugging hippies were trying to pound into our head – it is not so much that we change our quality of life, it is that we are aware of our impact and hope that we choose to do the environmentally friendly thing.

So, we flash-forward to today. I drive a fuel efficient scooter to work and I want my next car to be more environmentally friendly than 35 miles per gallon. The computer I am typing on took advantage of recycled plastic, a fact that entered into my purchasing of the product. My breakfast in a few weeks will come from the farmers market so that there is a smaller carbon footprint to ship the food. And, naturally, I turn off the lights and don’t let the water run at home.

Now, I do not feel that I have any lower a quality of life than my parents did at my age. What I do feel is that my lifestyle is dramatically different than theirs. For better or for worse, my generation is keenly aware of the issues facing our Earth.

In the end, I know that much of the damage will be done. But what I also know is that we are on the right course to at least mitigate the problem. I feel that, thanks to the progress made over the past 30 years, we are entering a new area of practical environmentalism that will have as big of an impact on our lives as the industrial revolution.

And some food for thought