Why do we need an "Earth Day" or "Earth Hour"?

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This is not a discussion about global warming. This is about taking care of our planet for future generations, so they don't end up having to clean up our messes. Shouldn't taking care of the planet be something that we do without having to be told? And does it really do any good for everyone to get their sh*t together for one day every year? If everyone made conservation and reduction a part of every day life, wouldn't we all be better off? I was a kid when the recycling program was first introduced. Once my family started keeping the boxes and aluminum cans for pick up every week, it was easy to see how much we had been wasting before. As an adult, my family still recycles. I've had to buy extra bins to hold the amount of things that get recycled each week. I'm trying to start reusing things so I don't contribute waste. Today I had an ink cartridge refilled instead of buying a new one. Not only did I save $13, but I also didn't add another plastic cartridge to the waste heap. Electricity is a biggie around here too. I'm amazed at the amount of electricity that's wasted in people's homes and how many lights get left on when no one is even in the room. I've taught my son to shut off lights whenever he leaves the room. He still forgets sometimes, but he does do it quite often. My electricity bill has gone down quite a bit. I was driving to work this morning, and saw city workers walking along the high way picking up garbage. There were bags and bags and bags just full of garbage that had been tossed out windows as people are driving down the high way. Why do people do this? Grocery store packaging drives me insane. You can find everything from applesauce to soup in individual servings. This means more packaging, more waste. You pay more for individual servings than if you bought one large container (like a jar of applesauce instead of the individual serving cups) and poured them into washable and reusable plastic containers. My son's school has a "litter-less lunch" policy. Everything must be put into plastic containers, and no packaging or wrappers is allowed. I have a small child. He's 6. And I want to make sure that my child and his children have unpolluted air to breathe, clean water to drink and clean land to walk on. If everyone used a little forethought each day, and decided not to throw away things that could be recycled, turned off unnecessary lights, picked up the garbage they saw lying on the ground and put it in the appropriate receptacle, brought their own cloth bags to the grocery store to use instead of plastic bags, used their clothing for more than one season (or at least contribute to/buy from consignment shops) etc, we could really make a difference. I'm not some hippie tree-hugger. I'm not suggesting anything extreme. All I'm asking is for people to get their heads out of their rear-ends and make a few small changes in their daily routine. Can you think of any other ways to make a difference by making small changes?