Dumb big moves undo many little smart moves.
The first Earth Day in 1970 awoke us to the many dangers of climate change such as extinction, smog, deforestation, water and soil pollution -which today no one denies. 
This year is the 46th Earth Day and we should consider the risks of climate change again. The negative effects occurring on planet earth are not a risk worth taking and as ambassadors of the World we need to address how to inform, educate and reform ourselves.
Consider bitumen. It is a heavy tar-like substance that no one knows how to clean up.It is pretty much worthless on world markets during an oil glut. And it is what Line 9 is pumping right through Downsview backyards. As a whole, Energy East would increase emissions by 32 million tons a year in CO2, undoing the vast good millions of us do every day.
We need another awakening. Efficiency saves money by replacing reliance on dangerous exports (asbestos, uranium, bitumen) that ultimately harm everyone. Green infrastructure which saves fuel and time is a better investment than pipelines.
This isn’t just economics, its morality. Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be a part of the Vulnerable 20 (V-20) nations who demand justice for climate harms done to them. Earth Day should focus on goals bigger than our own country and longer than our own lives.
Yes, it’s depressing. So was nuclear standoff. We survived. We became better people. Now let’s become better again!
Whatever efficiency you pursue now, keep it up: LED lighting, sealing drafts, new appliances with better efficiency, gardening around foundations to hold in heat, ditching old fridges, electric cars etc.
Consider one new surprising transformative thought every week. A piece of advice from Stanford University’s Professor Marc Jacobson’s: renewable energy (with smart grid & conservation) already does compete on cost with fossil fuels even without charging for fossil’s ecological damage. What keeps us back? Ignorance. Influence. Inertia.
Don’t be shamed by what you don’t do, what we all do, or what failed Yes, we’ve all idled our cars to stay warm. Yes, we use much more than ‘our share’ of what the Earth can sustain. Not even great spiritual leaders live up to all their own ideals every day in every act or comment. But doing nothing tomorrow because you didn’t do enough yesterday, is surrender.
Ever watch Mad Men? That’s how we behaved in the 1960s: casual sexism, drinking at work, drinking and driving, littering, smoking at work or in cars with children, and worse. Things didn’t get better all at once. We dropped one bad habit, then another, then another. We have a few more to drop. So consider Earth Day 2016 a funeral for those bad habits, a rebirth for yourself, and the day you finally ‘got it’.By Constantine Kritsonis and Craig Hubley