World Environment Day

Apparently today is the Dia Mundial del Medio Ambiente,* as decreed by the United Nations, which people actually listen to outside of the US. I learned this while walking through the plaza in the center of Felipe Carrillo Puerto on my way to breakfast. Seeing a group of schoolchildren dressed as trees, and surrounded by what must have been all the kids from all the schools that day, I decided it was worth a listen:



When I did make it to breakfast, a lady on the radio had some interesting things to say about World Environment Day. After reading a story about an Environment Day Parade (which I thought sounded kinda awkward), she went on to make a comment that I shall translate and paraphrase here:

"World Environmental Day doesn't require parades. It requires that each of us take a look at our impact on our Earth and not just for one day, either, but every day. There should be World Environment Days 365 days a year...

How many plastic bags do we use when we go to the store? We used to carry [Mayan word for traditional cloth bags] with us to the store every day, but now we use a new plastic bag every time we buy any little thing. We need to go back to the old [bags]...

In the United States, everyone is using reusable cloth bags...

Over there in the United States, they use paper, recylcable paper, biodegradable paper, instead of plastic. In the United States, they don't use plastic anymore!"

We better get on that, guys and gals.

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* World Environment Day on June 5 2009, so that gives you an idea of how behind on posts I am. Basically, I have them all written down in my notebooks and am transcribing them, along with pictures and video, to the Blog.