Hey everyone, hope everyone is having an awesome Earth Day 2012!  We made it another year, so things aren’t that bad right?  Apart from all the wildfires, floods, hurricanes, droughts, and tornadoes, things are going to be okay, yeah?  Heh heh (cough)… eh.  Well, I am sitting very still in my room, doing as little as I can to negatively impact the environment beyond exhaling carbon dioxide into the surrounding environs.  Oh, wait, I am on a computer right now.  Damnit.

I don’t know about you guys, but it is really easy for me, when I start thinking about environmental problems, to go down the rabbit hole of increasingly negative thoughts until arriving at a state of despair.  But, it is Earth Day and it’s important for me not to be a downer.  Actually, one thing that is very encouraging is the existence of this blog, as well as that of you, the audience.  To think that people actually care about animals not to eat them and buy products that exclude animal products is very cool.  And whether you realize this or not, you are doing the environmentally responsible thing.  Consider this – more greenhouse gas emissions come from raising farm animals for food than all the planes, ships, trucks, cars (all forms of fossil fuel based transportation) on the planet combined!  This is such an insane statistic I will link to some articles here, here, and here in case you doubt me.  Don’t forget all the air and water pollution, rainforests cleared to make way for grazing, and the grain that is used to fatten these animals up that can be used to feed way more people.

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For Earth Day, I am going to post nothing about shoes.  I was originally going to write something on “eco-friendly” kicks or some crap like that, but I realized I would be keeping it more real if I just spread the message of “JUST STOP SHOPPING FOR ONE DAY IN OUR LIVES.”  Don’t get me wrong, I love buying crap as much as the next person, and I love a fresh pair of kicks.  I wouldn’t have this blog if neither of those things were true.  But let us look at ourselves for a minute.   It is undisputed that the earth would be better off if we consumed less.  You could buy a Prius, and feel all happy that you’re “green,” but really, you would be more green if you bought a used car or didn’t buy a car at all!  Similarly, you can feel “responsible” by buying Simple shoes made out of recycled curtains or whatever, but at least some of those materials had to be dug up at some destitute nation, manufactured in some environmentally damaging way, and flown halfway around the world, then mailed to the store or to your house, those vehicles spewing greenhouse gases all the while and creating a waste stream that will last until after we all die.  Whew…

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