For in their Interflowing Aggregate

“For in their interflowing aggregate, those grand fresh-water seas of ours, -- Erie, and Ontario, and Huron, and Superior, and Michigan, -- possess an ocean-like expansiveness, with many of the ocean’s noblest traits”

Any Michigan observance of Earth Day begins with the Great Lakes and other waterways that make our state unique. Can you identify the author of the tribute above? You may have a whale of a time tracking it down, so if you can hang with me for a moment, I’ll reveal the answer.

In my view, the focus of Earth Day has always been part awareness, part call to action. Locally, Detroit Public TV is launching initiatives to protect our fresh water resources. They include a new documentary about Great Lakes ecosystems, and a partnership with the Clinton River Watershed Council and the Community Telecommunications Network.

Detroit Public TV’s Fred and Kelley and a GET UP! GET OUT! crew will be knee deep into promoting water quality as they shoot a River Day episode of the series on May 7. You’ll be learning right along with them about what we must do to preserve Michigan’s fresh water supplies when you watch the program this summer. The episode will also become a classroom tool in many local school districts.

We hope you get caught up in the spirit of Earth Day. We’ve got you covered with local productions, and PBS offerings like NOVA: CAR OF THE FUTURE, (Tues., 8 p.m.) with its focus on limiting emissions and developing alternate fuel sources, or NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’S STRANGE DAYS ON PLANET EARTH, Wed. 9 p.m., spotlighting the worldwide threats to fresh and salt water.

If I may expand and update the above 1851 published words of Herman Melville in Moby Dick, protecting the earth’s natural resources is a noble trait.