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Making every day Earth Day – literally

It's June 8, and you know what that means: Happy !

We understand that you might still be exhausted from having just celebrated this past Friday, on May 22, and on May 14, but we hope that you can muster a little more energy today to, you know, think about the oceans.

We know what you're thinking: Didn't we just have a World Oceans Day?

Nope. You're probably confusing it with , which was held on March 22 (the day after ), or perhaps , which was Feb. 2.

You'd think that the world's weather experts would be a bit peeved about someone declaring a wetlands holiday on Groundhog Day, but don't worry: The weather people got their due on March 23, , in which participants – and we're sure you were one of them – took some time to think about "weather, climate and the air we breathe."

And then five days later, on March 28, you pondered the atmosphere a little more during , when we all turned our lights off for an hour (and possibly made things worse with all those paraffin candles).

Things settled down the following month, when the only major environmental holiday was the big one – – on April 22, followed two days later by , an old holiday that has fallen out of vogue, perhaps because planting a tree requires physical labor.

But we're only halfway through the year. Next Monday is followed by on Wednesday, and then it's time to gear up for (July 11), (Sept. 4), (Sept. 16), (Sept. 28), (Oct. 1; not to be confused with , which is Nov. 1), (Oct. 4), (Oct. 5), (Oct. 16), (Nov. 15), and (Dec. 11).

The purpose of all these days, of course, is to Raise Awareness. Environmental degradation, the thinking goes, is not caused by running linear systems of production in a world of finite resources; rather, it's caused by mass ignorance. But by getting Congress – or better still, the UN – to designate a calendar date as an "official" observance of your cause, it will help you increase Awareness, allowing you to distribute more pamphlets, T-shirts, silicone bracelets, magnetic car ribbons, tote bags, mugs, calendars, and so on, raising Awareness even more.

Once Awareness has passed a certain threshold, congrats! Your job is done. Now it's time for the problem to be fixed by someone else – such as the government, or maybe Google.

Of course, this threshold has not been crossed yet, which explains why the oceans continue to fill with garbage, species continue to vanish at an alarming rate, and greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise.

But don't worry. By my count, there are at least 340 days of the year that still aren't designated as environmental awareness days. There's still much work to be done, but at least we all know the way forward.