Editor's note: Today we start our post swap with LighterFootstep.com, a new site we've really come to like. We're happy that editor Chris Baskind has agreed to this swap, as we believe that GO and Lighter Footstep have similar missions: making green living accessible to everyone. Today's post was originally published on Tuesday, April 24.

Judging from reports coming in today, this year's Earth Day celebrations were among the largest and most optimistic in recent memory. Largest — thanks to attention being focused on climate change by movies like An Inconvenient Truth; and most optimistic — thanks to you.

Things happen when people get together. That's nothing new, of course, but people are finally uniting behind the idea of sustainable change.

The job ahead

It won't be easy. It won't be fast. But even if you set aside the entire issue of climate change and its controversies, we face a century of growing populations, shifting food and water supplies, increasingly fragile oceans, and the certainty that the age of cheap, plentiful petroleum energy will soon be behind us.

These are global-sized challenges. I spent some time this weekend answering comments on Lighter Footstep and elsewhere about whether or not a single person can make any difference when you consider the scale of the problem.

Ever heard this?

"Changing your air conditioning filter?" wrote one commenter on a major social bookmarking site. "It's feel-good nonsense to suggest anything like that matters when you have China and India opening coal power plants faster than we can even clean ours up. It's stupid."

One one level, he's right. Pulling a bit more efficiency out of your home cooling system is a drop in the bucket when you think of big energy-wasters — such as lit, climate-controlled office parks which stand unused outside the work day. Open freezer cases at the grocery. Or all the unnecessary travel which happens in cities without adequate public transportation.

But he's also wrong — very wrong — on two important fronts.

First: Sustainability is personal. Resources are getting tight. Things are becoming more expensive. By identifying more sustainable ways of conducting your life and lowering your overall environmental footstep, you (or your business) reap immediate personal benefits. You don't have to wait for government or big industry. Start saving money, living healthier, and making better use of the things you already own by taking that first step toward Sustainability.

Second: Global change is generational change. Admittedly, there are some things that need to be done as quickly as possible to make sure the 21st Century is a landmark, rather than a headstone. But it took the Industrial Revolution and a couple centuries of abuse to get our soil, air, and water to their current state. Maybe it will take as long to put it back. It's also taken us decades to teach our children that thoughtless consumption is an acceptable way of life.

Small now, big later

So every time we purchase a CFL, cut our water use, and carry home our groceries in reusable bags, we're making an investment in the future. If we can pass these habits to our kids — and if they do the same — a single act of conservation in the present will be multiplied manyfold through the years. That's not just a low-flow showerhead you're installing: it's a warehouse full of earth-friendly technology that hasn't been invented yet.

That's what happens when people come together and commit to change. Even the small ones.

The Green Web is amazingly vibrant. New sites and blogs pop up every day. Lighter Footstep and Green Options have experienced what could only be described as explosive growth. Our readership expands from week to week.

This is all happening one person at a time — one idea at a time; one intention to make a positive change at a time.

And that's how we're going to make Earth Day happen every day.

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Chris Baskind writes about environmental issues. He's also the publisher of Lighter Footstep, a web-based magazine devoted to Sustainability and learning to live more lightly.