Be the 10 Billionth Person to Tweet (About Pesticides)

The microblogging site Twitter is poised to hit a major milestone: sometime in the next day or so one lucky Twitter user is expected to send out the ten billionth tweet (real-time counter is here).

Whether you love exchanging ideas in 140-character bursts, or if U H8 the resulting abbrevs, people will be paying very close attention to the string of words that mark Twitter's ascension into the big, big time.

So what will that 10 billionth tweet say? How about "Protect Rural Kids From Pesticides! Take action here:http://bit.ly/dyq39N"?

What better way to announce to the world that citizens of the Twitter-sphere are informed, politically engaged, compassionate?

Plus, the timing would be perfect: this push comes in the final days of EPA's public comment period on a petition by Earthjustice, United Farm Workers, MomsRising.org, Pesticide Action Network, Physicians for Social Responsibility and many others asking the agency to protect children from pesticide drift—the toxic spray or vapor that travels from pesticide-treated fields and into nearby communities.

The deadline for the public to weigh in on this is Friday. So, whether you're a devoted @Earthjustice follower or a Twitter newbie I'd like you to do three things: tell EPA how important you think it is to protect rural kids from pesticides. Tweet the link (http://bit.ly/dyq39N) out to all of your followers. And then retweet. Until we hit 10 billion!

If Twitter's not your thing, you can still send your message to EPA here.

At any rate, I am hoping against hope that the 10 billionth tweet isn't from a pesticide-loving CropLife member rounding up the troops to shout down our proposal for pesticide protection zones around the places where children live, learn, and play. And if you doubt that CropLife is getting its message out via Twitter, check out this post.

The millenial generation is sometimes scorned for our short attention spans, our fascination with the newest toys, our penchant for verbal shortcuts.

Yes. But. Wouldn't it be great if we could proudly show everyone we're just trying to save the world 140 characters at a time?