2010 – all dates TBD
Gingerbread Laboratory and Pumpkin Carving Contest – late October. This event is free to enter and free to attend. Gingerbread kits are readily available in stores (great for kids!), or for the kitchen savvy, create your own gingerbread structure and decorate it. Excluding the base, all ingredients MUST BE EDIBLE. No lollypop sticks or candy wrappers allowed. Pumpkins – we’ll be keeping it simple this year and asking you to bring in your already-carved pumpkin for judging. We will be posting more information about this event in August to allow plenty of time to pre-register.
Re-purposed Art Show - November. Local artists strongly encouraged to participate. The theme is recycled art, re-purposed art or green (as in sticks-and-fiber green, not the color) art.
Gingerbread House Contest – December. Works the same as our Gingerbread Laboratory Contest, all edible materials excluding the base. Make an edible creation from a kit or make your own in your kitchen. Free to enter, free to attend. We’ll post more information on all upcoming events in August, please check back with us.
MoSS Logo Contest now open to everyone:
The logo at the top of this page was chosen as a temporary representation for our organization. If you think you can do better, and we’re sure you can, enter our Logo Design Competition and submit your own creation. It just might become a permanent part of MoSS. Deadline for submissions is October 15th, 2010. Download our official entry form (including rules and requirements) here: logo-contest.pdf (73k).
See the instructions on the entry form and email submissions to disa@themoss.org
Earth Day! Why do we celebrate it?
Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd in the United States. The event was founded in 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson (1916-2005) of Wisconsin, and was designed as an environmental “teach-in.” This event is often cited as the start of the environmental movement, now a global force for sustainability. One year later, John McConnell, author and activist, urged the United Nations to adopt Earth Day as a global celebration. In 1971, UN Secretary General U Thant signed the Earth Day Proclamation establishing the global event on the date of the Spring Equinox (around March 20th in the northern hemisphere, and September 23rd in the southern hemisphere). The exact date of the celebration is not really an issue, and various organizations have chosen either or both for their environmental activities. What’s more important is that we set aside some time for consideration and education on critical matters such as pollution, waste, energy, water, and sustainability. Here at MoSS, every day is Earth Day.
Senator Nelson was asked why he chose the date he did, as it also happened to be the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin. He explained that with 3.7 billion people on the planet, every day was the birthday of about 10 million people. “On any given day, a lot of both good and bad people were born,” said Nelson. “A person many consider the world’s first environmentalist, Saint Francis of Assisi, was born on April 22. So was Queen Isabella. More importantly, so was my Aunt Tillie.”
It is often said that the now-famous first image of the whole Earth (below), taken by Apollo 8 astronaut Jim Lovell on November 10th 1967, changed the consciousness of a generation and allowed us to better appreciate the fragility and isolation of our planet juxtaposed against the emptiness of space. Seeing the Earth with its beautiful colors and clouds, minus the international boundaries and labels that adorn most globes, and surrounded by the infinite black of outer space, changed our perception of the planet. We’re all on this ride together. In fact, the term “Spaceship Earth,” popularized by Buckminster Fuller, aptly describes our shared ecosystem. It became an icon of the environmental movement, and the image itself remains the most often requested image from NASA’s photographic archives.
- Image courtesy of NASA
Although the concept of a “world flag” would seem to follow logically from these ideas, and although many designs have been proposed, the United Nations never acted on, it citing the usual obvious diplomatic obstacles. Political cartoonist Ron Cobb designed what became the most widely accepted vision for such a flag (below), first published on October 25th, 1969, and immediately releasing it into the public domain. It was patterned after the United States flag, with 13 alternating green and white stripes, and a canton showing a yellow “theta” symbol (often used as a warning sign). Cobb’s original thoughts were to combine the letters “E” (for environment) and “O” (for organism) into a unified whole. The symbol has become yet another Earth Day icon.
- Flag design by Ron Cobb
In the wake of that first Earth Day, significant changes swept the country. The Clean Air Act was passed, the EPA was created, and the word “ecology” entered the common vocabulary. Earth Day is now celebrated in 175 countries, Today, several organizations keep the spirit of Earth Day alive. Its primary host is The Earth Day Network at: www.earthday.net. The United States government portal is at: www.earthday.gov.
Historical materials for Earth Day are on continuous display at MoSS. The button (below) from the original 1970 Earth Day celebration is one of those displays. It was saved and donated by Dan Heim, a member of our founding Board of Directors.
