The world celebrated its first "Earth Day" in 1970. It has now done so every year for 49 years, with events coordinated by an Earth Day Network in more than 190 countries.

Bill McKibben's "End of Nature" was first serialized in the New Yorker, and then published as a book in 1989. His latest book posits that, without radical action, we have now, without question, passed a point of no return.

While others are less pessimistic, nearly all reputable climate scientists now agree that action must be taken to prevent further human contributions to the warming of the planet and that those actions must happen NOW, if not sooner.

Greater Middleburg has, of course, been "green-minded" for nearly all of his long history.

Government, non-profits and private citizens have been dedicated to protecting the environment on general principles, long before the emergence of what is now seen as a truly existential environmental crisis. Windy Hill Foundation's approach to new construction is but one case in point.

In the days, weeks, months and year ahead Middleburg will have many new opportunities to set new standards of environmental responsibility and to serve as a role model for small towns across the county, state, and nation.

Those opportunities go far beyond the Town's traditional support of initiatives like Arbor Day, responsible zoning and planning, and its own institutional environmentally sound practices and principles.

Its leadership role in COLT (the Coalition of Loudoun Towns), standing in opposition to County support of what is essentially unbridled and irresponsible development is symbolic of its new, transcendent mindset.

And while Middleburg cannot create, much less enforce, building standards above and beyond those established by the county, it can and should make its preferences well known to all those seeking the Town's support for rezoning, exceptions, new construction or renovation.

Most important, however, will be the highly visible example it sets in the planning and construction of its own new Town Hall.

"Go Green" is the name of one of Town Council's most dynamic committees. It should make the name of that committee the goal and motto of any and all the Town's new construction projects . . .. especially its new Town Hall.