For the last three decades, San Marcos resident Lanny Smith, aka Earthman, has been using music and the arts “to educate, activate and inspire youth and adults to use their power to create a sustainable and a peaceful world.”
A screenshot of Smith during a performance.
Smith has been in the music industry for even longer. Before shifting his focus to environmental education via his Planet Earth Project, he lived in Tennessee.
“And I have friends who are good old country boys and they’ll sit in the back of the pickup truck with a big American flag on it. And they will have some words for you if you ever say anything against America. And they drink their beers and then they throw them on the ground – and the ground is America. We got to understand that so everybody can participate in doing something that is really good, especially when it comes to littering. It just is not a healthy thing,” Smith said.
But if there’s one thing Smith wants Texans to pay specific attention to this Earth Day – Friday, April 22 – it’s water conservation.
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“Forty-six percent of South Central Texas is under a D3 status, which is an extreme drought and 3.5% of that area is in the exceptional drought, which we call a D4.” Smith said.
He encourages folks to go to the U.S. Drought Monitor’s web site to learn more about the conditions in their area and to do some research to learn more about the impacts of extended dry weather in Texas.
“Educate yourself,” Smith said. “And that’s the best way that you can go forward.”
