Earth Day Gets a Tech Boost

April 22, 2005 &#151 -- In this week's "Cybershake," we celebrate Earth Day with a little help from digital technology. Plus, we take note of a new hospital in Florida that could be the prototype for health care in the digital millennium.

On April 22, 1970, a revolutionary idea came to life in the United States: a day specifically set aside to create awareness about pollution and other environmental concerns. And 35 years later, Earth Day has undergone a revolution of its own -- a technological one.

Kathleen Rogers, president of the global Earth Day Network, says computers and the Internet have made it much easier -- and cheaper -- to spread environmental news and information to its more than 12,000 organizations in 174 countries.

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"We found that if we give them materials over the Internet that they can reprint it in their countries for close to nothing, particularly in developing countries," says Rogers.

For one Earth Day project in Ukraine this year, for example, Rogers estimates that electronic distribution of materials saved EDN and participating European organizations about $40,000 to $50,000.