If you want to buy an organic cotton T-shirt for Earth Day, well, there's no shortage of fests and street parties where you can do just that.
But what if you want to take meaningful action? You know, actually do something?
Sometimes we're more lip service than earth service, but that doesn't have to be the case. Here's how to make a difference in our corner of paradise this Earth Day:
Plant a tree My parents have an oak tree in the front yard that's huge — they picked it up years ago as a sapling in a tree giveaway by the city of Clearwater, and now it offers gorgeous shade and homes for countless squirrels, each of whom my mother treats like the grandchildren I've never given her. (Seriously, all the squirrels love her yard.) How do you get the trees (you're on your own with the squirrels, but as I understand it, they'll show up)? Well, this year, Grow Financial's giving away trees — you can get a Dahoon holly (think Christmas berries). Dahoons grow pretty much anywhere, and birds love love love them some berries (they're like brunchtime prosecco for blue jays). Go into any Grow Financial location during their regular business hours on Apr. 19 & 20 and get yours.
Clean a beach So, plastics are kind of a problem, and that may be the understatement of the year. The absolute best thing you can do this Earth Day (and, well, every day) is go clean one of our many, many beaches. Picnic Island Park (7409 Picnic Island Blvd., Tampa on Sat. at 4:30 p.m.), the Tampa side of the Courtney Campbell Causeway (across from boat ramp by the traffic light on Sun. at 11 a.m.) and Memorial Causeway (Clearwater Marine Aquarium, 249 Windward Passage, Clearwater on Sun. at 8 a.m.) all have beach cleanups scheduled.
Clean something else OK, fine, so non-beaches need love, too. Tarpon Springs (Tarpon Springs Community Garden, 116 N. Ring Ave., Tarpon Springs on Sat. at 8 a.m.), St. Pete Eco Village (302 15th St. N., St. Pete on Sun. at 8 a.m.) and Lettuce Lake (Vaughan Center at the University of Tampa, 401 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa on Sat. at 8:30 a.m.) all offer non-salty, terra-firma options.
Write something So this isn't as sexy as meeting a group of your friends and drinking bubbles after a beach cleanup, but it's pretty important: Write. Write your local board of county commissioners (Here's where to find email for Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota commissioners) and ask them to take specific action on any of the following issues that speaks to you: Phosphate mining, clean water, growth management, clean energy, protecting local wildlife or the Everglades. The Sierra Club has some pretty good talking points, plus a link to ask that the head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, resign. Speaking of which, why not email Senator Bill Nelson and ask that he take a super strong stand in favor of removing government subsidies for Big Sugar? I mean, you can probably send your thoughts about the EPA to Marco Rubio, too, but that's about as effective as sending him your thoughts and prayers…
Send money Bill Nelson's gonna be running against Rick Scott in the next senate race, and Republicans are gonna be throwing money at Scott like somebody with a serious thing for baldness at FetishCon 2018, so if you have some spare change, Nelson would probably appreciate it. Republicans typically fundraise wayyyyy more than conservatives (we're too busy sending money to nonprofits that feed the hungry, clothe the homeless and basically take care of everyone fucked by Big Red), so if you're behind the Blue Wave, they'll need all they can get.
This article appears in Apr 12-19, 2018.