When Earth Day was first created in 1970, there was a noble purpose behind it: to designate a day for environmental issues, something that probably wasn’t on the minds of consumers for the rest of the 364 days in the year. It was just something that came and went, especially in the days when we were in elementary school and did nature-type crafts to commemorate the annual event. Most of the time, sadly, it didn’t seem important.

Now, it seems redundant to devote a day to what is already becoming a mainstream practice.

More people at least attempt to be environmentally friendly after former vice president and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Al Gore debuted his Academy Award-winning “An Inconvenient Truth” documentary.

More and more shoppers are taking their own reusable bags to the store, switching lightbulbs, recycling and sometimes participating in trash pickup activities in the local community. Individuals are becoming more aware and more understanding of the plights facing the planet, and they do this more than once a year.

For very different reasons, Earth Day, again, doesn’t seem that important. After 38 years, it’s time to revitalize or just get rid of Earth Day.

Instead of taking the day to spread awareness, it’s time to devote a day to action.

Some people already have plans to do just that today — there are various kinds of projects and entertainment events planned throughout the world, according to the Earth Day Network’s Web site, ww2.earthday.net.

This highlights the potential for Earth Day — especially if it can mobilize the world to do something big among the smaller lifestyle changes we’ve already made.

But whatever happens, let’s not make this another government holiday where people take the day off. No one would actually take the day off to think about or volunteer their time toward environmental causes.

Whether you believe in global warming or not, everyone can at least agree that our planet deserves some respect. We live here, and for now it’s our only option. Mess up the planet and the whole human race is doomed.

If we could take one day to do all that much more — apart from our personal earth-saving routines at work and home — everyone would probably get behind that, too.