Earth Day is many things to many people but it has been and always will be a political event. While Gaylord Nelson and others created the day to celebrate the natural beauty and vitality of Earth and the steps then undertaken to protect it, another purpose was to mobilize the political will to take more decisive action to protect our environment and natural resources.

With the changed climate severely damaging our earth a bit more every day, we encounter lots of earnest advice to change our ways—for example, stopping or severely reducing our use of fossil fuels, meat, air travel, automobiles. I won't argue with those admonitions but joy is sometimes better motivation than duty.

Photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren