By Sean Sullivan Lagniappe columnist

I think the country music super-group Alabama said it best when they sang “So let’s leave some blue up above us, Let’s leave some green on the ground, It’s only ours to borrow, let’s save some for tomorrow, Leave it and pass it on down.”

Other than just being another pearl of wisdom from the limestone bluffs of Fort Payne, it is also a big example of what is wrong with the environmental movement. The preceding lyrics are from a 10-plus-year-old song called “Pass It On Down” which I believe were written with the same heart as Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” was 25 year before that. The problem is the nation, and to a lesser degree the world, only gets into the environmental thing every once in a while. Americans only rally around the green scene when ecological issues, media focus and hip factor reach a critical mass.

We are currently at one of those high tide points, but you envirofreaks shouldn’t be too happy, nor should those that would pour PCBs into the bay as a lark become too distraught, because the tide will turn and the country will turn away from their green focus to move onto whatever the next fad is, maybe. Therein lies the rub. The only time there is widespread focus on the environment is when it is given more credence by the legions of half-hearted joiners looking for the newest cause to build their lifestyles around. Green fever usually comes around once a decade and then goes into some sort of cicada-like dormancy just to hatch out 10 years later and sing from the treetops once again.

Then there are the in-between years, the environmental focus lean years, when you can see who actually understands and cares about the issues facing the planet and who was just a sheep looking for a shepard. I like my earlier juxtaposition of Randy Owens and Joni Mitchell to highlight how different environmentalists can be, because other than music and an eye on nature the two couldn’t be more different. There are environmentalists who hug trees and there are ones who cut them. There are environmentalists who hunt animals and there are ones who rescue them. There are activists who lobby legislative bodies in the name of water quality and there are those who take grass roots efforts to make sure run-off doesn’t come from their “back yard.”

These people make up a funny looking group, full of farmer’s over-alls, dreadlocked hair, kayaks, shotguns, solar panels, timber saws and hacky-sacks. OK, maybe not hacky-sacks. I’ve actually never figured out how this pastime helps out planet Earth, but the bean-filled sacks seem to be omnipresent at any Earth Day celebration.

This Earth Day I worry that the throngs of people who have green fever now will over do it and burn out only to fade into yet another diversion, leaving the very few that live an earth-friendly lifestyle every day. The majority of those who will remain in the fold and try to keep the flame alive until the next green boom cycle will be those who have a vested interest in the outside world.

Only those people who derive pleasure or profit from a clean environment will take steps everyday to protect it and unfortunately in today’s hyper-urbanized world they are a minority. Private land owners, hunters, fishermen, campers, canoeist, hikers and bird watchers are the kind of people who have vested interest in the land and water. This group is small as compared to the world’s population. The disconnect most people have from the natural world may be why “living green” tends to be a once-a-decade fad and not a lifestyle for most. If something does not affect your daily life it is rarely thought of.

That may be why the global warming fad has gotten some traction. One doesn’t have to appreciate the subtleties of nature to be worried about what has been billed as environmental Armageddon. Even if a person spends his entire life on concrete, he does not want to face one of the ways to die shown on the Weather Channel’s “It Could Happen Tomorrow” or one of the enviro-fiction action movies.

While I have not been convinced global warming is a man-made phenomenon and especially an American-made phenomenon, I might look the other way on some of the hype if it will focus more Americans on doing the little things we know actually work to clean up our environment. If some ridiculous movie about a tsunami flooding Manhattan keeps someone in some strange disjointed logic from pouring leftover pesticide down the storm drain, then I guess it has some value.

Remember, as cheesy as this sounds, whether you are a Randy Owens or a Joni Mitchell, Earth Day is everyday.

Sean Sullivan can be heard weekday mornings no 106.5 FM, The Pirate.

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Sean Sullivan is Lagniappe lagniappe columnist. Contact him at ssullivan@lagniappemobile.com.

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