Last year on this day, I wrote about Earth Day with at least some degree of optimism.

As I sit down this morning, though, the environmental picture looks less than robust.

Because a Flagstaff newspaper reflects my own outlook this week, I share an editorial from them.

“Earth Day 2011 … takes place amid a cloud of disappointment over a year that, by most benchmarks, seemed to take more steps backward than forward. The three biggest threats to global survival—non-renewable fuel use in transportation, power production and agriculture—seem more ominous than ever.

…

“If Earth Day is to be more than a once-a-year pep rally for a greener planet, it has to engage head-on the debate over jobs and a sustainable environment. Public education, at some point, must be tied to realistic political strategies that appeal to more than just the converted.”

Read the Daily Sun’s complete piece here.