U.S. Earth Day goes political and corporate

Google went green and so did dozens of comic strips while President George W. Bush opted for a traditional tree-planting on Tuesday to mark Earth Day, an environmental event that has become increasingly political and corporate.

Thirty-eight years after Earth Day began as a series of grassroots "teach-ins" about environmental conservation and pollution, April 22 has become an occasion to focus attention on human-generated climate change and the policies around it - a topic not on the public mind in 1970.

The method for getting the message across has certainly evolved. Google.com's online search site featured a lush logo with letters made of moss-covered boulders, a tree sprouting from the "L" and a waterfall flowing beneath it. Clicking on the image led to a list of Earth Day-related sites.

The comics pages in many U.S. newspapers featured strips with environmental themes. "Zippy The Pinhead" was typical: the short-sighted residents of Dingburg save the Earth by packing dirt into suitcases and keeping them in a storage locker.

"With such teeny attention spans, they're blissfully unaware of the worldwide crisis we're all responsible for!" the strip's narration read.

Bush was in New Orleans for the so-called "Three Amigos" summit with leaders from Canada and Mexico. All three were scheduled to plant a tree in honor of the day.

On the presidential campaign trail, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain offered statements urging a focused U.S. environmental and energy policy.

"Our leaders in Washington have to put what's right for our planet ahead of what's good for their friends in the energy industry," Obama, an Illinois senator, said in a statement on the day of the presidential primary in Pennsylvania, where he is in a tight race with Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.

"We must have the courage to realistically confront the specter of climate change," McCain said in his statement. "This is one of the greatest challenges confronting the next president."

LAWS AND LIGHTBULBS

On Capitol Hill, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, also planned a tree-planting while three Democratic lawmakers who deal with climate and energy issues offered four goals for crafting effective legislation to cap climate-warming carbon emissions.

Reps. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Henry Waxman of California and Jay Inslee of Washington state said any effective climate-change law must reduce emissions to avoid dangerous global warming, shift the United States to clean energy, minimize the law's economic impacts and aid communities and ecosystems at risk from global warming.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under fire from critics who contend the agency has failed to curb the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fueled vehicles that spur climate change, launched a national campaign aimed at cutting emissions in U.S. homes.

The agency's new program recommends switching to high-efficiency lightbulbs, making heating and cooling systems more efficient, insulating effectively, choosing Energy Star-rated appliances and using power management on home computers and monitors.

Participants in the program include Amazon.com, Best Buy, Hewlett-Packard, Lowe's, Menards, Sears, and Subway, the agency said in a statement.

This year's Earth Day got off to an early start at the weekend with outdoor concerts at the Green Apple Festival in eight U.S. cities. The largest, in Washington on Sunday, was halted due to torrential rain and lightning.

The Washington Post, noting the change in the celebration from previous years, wrote a tongue-in-cheek essay declaring Earth Day dead: "What killed it? A long but admirable struggle with celebrity piety and corporate baloney, mainly."