What a Writer Can do for Earth Day
Or…this is a reiteration of your assignment from The Dragon

We celebrated International Earth Day March 20-21 this year. This weekend, we celebrate regular ol' Earth Day in the United States. Because the tradition started the year I was born, I feel particularly obligated to participate. (That and I truly dig helping the animals.)

Here’s what I’d like to do. I’d like to get writers to do what they do best and do it for the creatures on our planet who can’t write. I encourage you to write a letter on behalf of the animals. (Come on, it’s a blog devoted to writing.) Here are the topics I’ve selected for you to choose from, but you’re certainly welcome to choose one that’s nearer and dearer to your heart.

1) Stop illegal poaching/collection (emphasis on sea turtles such as the Hawksbill would be nice, but don’t forget the tigers, elephants, parrots, etc. overseas)
2) Clean up pollution of our waterways and oceans (emphasis on trash killing marine life)
3) Stop global warming (emphasis on sea turtle nest site loss and bleaching of coral reefs)
4) End the Canadian harp seal hunt (which began last month—in other words, while you’re sitting here debating whether or not it’s convenient to write a letter expressing your opinion to someone, like Canadian Prime Minister Harper, baby seals are being beat in the head by ruthless men who feel the need to support their families by killing two-week-old animals—and this year, the Canadian government is suppressing documentation of the hunt (gee, why can’t we see the hunting practices if there’s nothing wrong with it?) by keeping anyone with a videocamera from coming within 20 meters of a seal—but, by all means, let the guy with a club or gun walk right up to the bleating creature)


Now, to take away excuses:
If you feel that you can’t get a letter completed this weekend for Earth Day even though I gave you a heads up about it last month, well, never fear. Start working on your letter now; do your research; send me a note so I can help you if you wish (remember, I’m an editor!); and just send it as soon as you can. Animals are exploited all year round.

Next: Here are some sites to use to find your representatives’ addresses. Printing the letter and mailing it is more effective than e-mail. Kinda like sending a Hallmark card—it says you really care.

This first site will give you windows to cut and paste your letter in for e-mailing. Again, I don’t like that concept, but it’s one option for the ultra-busy environmentalist out there.
http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Here’s a site that will help you draft a concise, coherent letter with proper formatting of the salutation and everything:
http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa020199.htm
The site also gives links for the physical addresses for your reps, and THAT’s a good thing.

You could also get some information/begin research on the seal hunt travesty at:
http://www.stopthesealhunt.com/site/apps/ka/ct/contactcustom.asp?c=hmKYJeNVJtF&b=412891
I don’t recommend merely “signing” the internet petition, though, as I’ve had a representative in the United States share with me what happens to such mindless pieces of mail. But you could begin your education/research with the points in this petition and draft a letter of your own for Prime Minister Harper.

This should get you started, shouldn’t it?

Save the Earth—it’s the only planet with chocolate!

“Some days, I want all the dragons to win.”

Tags: earth day, sea turtles, harp seals, poaching, global warming