Wings For Wheels

As I was compiling this for tomorrow (what, did you think I actually do this first thing Tuesday morning?), I found out that today is Blog Action Day, in which bloggers all over the world commit to posting about the environment in the hopes of raising awareness.  As a result, I’m posting my weekly links feature a day early.  So I’m a little late to the party, but there’s still enough of the day for me to contribute.

By the way, I’m not giving this post a “Politics” tag, because I don’t think the environment should be looked at in political terms. It’s something that we should all be concerned about. I know that we can’t all be like that Into The Wild wacko and entirely give up our lifestyles, but there does have to be an overall change in our approach to the planet. That said, we also have to look out for people whose lives will be negatively impacted by the change (we can’t do to the automobile industry what Margaret Thatcher did to the coalminers). So, in honor of Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize, I’m dedicating today’s MAL/TML to environmental issues.

Al Gore’s website, where you can read, learn and sign up to take action to save the planet.

At Slate, Bruce Reed looks at Gore’s extensive history as an environmentalist.

From now until October 20, the Solar Decathlon, which features 20 teams from different schools building houses entirely powered by the sun, is taking place on the National Mall. I visited this on Saturday with my sister, an architect who is trying to incorporate more green concepts into her work, and it was pretty cool.

Over at Huffington Post, Suzy Shuster looks at the growing number of prominent athletes, like Rob Woodson and Steve Nash, who have become committed environmentalists.

Also at HuffPo, Prius owner Laurie David feels betrayed by Toyota.

Finally, Bill Maher’s “New Rules” from April 20, 2007, in which he stresses the need to make every day Earth Day.