I think most, if not all, of us that participate in Earth Day know that we are not really saving the Earth on this one day each year. So, then, what does participating in Earth Day accomplish?

I make the analogy to hiking on a trail with switchbacks. Most of us know this experience of enjoying the outdoors, and many of us have seen the “shortcuts” that some make between the switchbacks to make the trail shorter or faster. Personally, I make the conscious choice to stay on the path each and every time, avoiding the temptation of the shortcut, because I know that over time it actually damages the whole trail.

Those of us that choose to stay on the path know that we are not going to personally benefit from that decision, but that if we trust the other thousands of hikers to make the same decision then the whole trail system will benefit over the long run.

This is a “social” choice; choosing the path that is best if everyone stays on it, as opposed to the shortcut that only benefits the individual. To work, I have to trust that the majority of the other hikers will make the same choice.

Earth Day is a similar type of "social" choice; Individually we all want to see our actions create change – but with "social" choices we have to trust that our efforts, when added to the millions of similar efforts, will collectively work to create change.

So, what does Earth Day actually accomplish in this context – social pressure. The more people that participate and talk about protecting the Earth, the more pressure we put on big entities to take it seriously, and I think it is working. The green-ness of things is more important now than I have ever been aware of in the past.

I don’t claim that it's all been figured out, but I do feel that on this Earth Day my participation matters because I see that millions of others are also participating and that our combined presence makes the topic more and more significant.

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