https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-50th-anniversary/
Where were you 50 years ago today? I was in Knoxville, TN and was 50 days away from graduation from High School. The United States was in social and political upheaval and I, like many 18 year olds brought up in a fundamentalist religious household, was questioning the status quo. We saw the ravages of war and cries for a revolution on the nightly news. The Earth Day cause was a safe one to embrace.
Celebrating Earth Day begs the question: what is humanity’s relationship to the planet that sustains us?
It is widely believed that Earth is 4.5,000,000,000 years old (give or take a few million years). Simple cells first appeared on Earth nearly 4 billion years ago. "We had insects 400 million years ago, dinosaurs 300 million years ago and flowering plants 130 million years ago," lead researcher Andrew Rushby, of the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. "Anatomically modern humans have only been around for the last 200,000 years — so you can see it takes a really long time for intelligent life to develop." Humans began to communicate through language around 50,000 to 150,000 years ago, and we have been writing since about 3200 BC.
Each one of us has a somewhat unique perspective on our individual relationship to the Earth. We can either become aware of our environment and treasure it, or we can recklessly stumble through life ignoring our responsibility to preserve it.
As modern man has created technologies that protect us against the hostilities of our environment, so have we also begun to destroy that environment. Unfortunately, during the past 100 years, due to desire for “conveniences”, modern life style has evolved in a trajectory that is damaging to the Earth, and we find ourselves 50 years after the first Earth Day in a worse position than in 1970. Possibly the worst culprit is the chemical creation and wide use of plastics. From National Geographic Magazine: "
In his last book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, Stephen Hawking warns of eminent destruction.
The Earth is under threat from so many areas that it is difficult for me to be positive. The threats are too big and too numerous.
We have presented our planet with the disastrous gift of climate change. Rising temperatures, reduction of the polar ice caps, deforestation, over-population, disease, war, famine, lack of water and decimation of animal species; these are all solvable but so far have not been solved.
Global warming is caused by all of us. We want cars, travel and a better standard of living. The trouble is, by the time people realize what is happening, it may be too late.
We need to go beyond the Kyoto Protocol; the international agreement adopted in 1997, and cut carbon emissions now. We have the technology. We need the political will.
On that grim outlook, let’s turn to selected words from Walt Whitman.
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chef-d’œuvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depress’d head surpasses any statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.
The bull and the bug never worshipp’d half enough,
Dung and dirt more admirable than was dream’d,
The supernatural of no account, myself waiting my time to be one of the supremes,
The day getting ready for me when I shall do as much good as the best, and be as prodigious;
By my life-lumps! becoming already a creator,
Putting myself here and now to the ambush’d womb of the shadows.
Smile O voluptuous cool-breath’d earth!
Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees!
Earth of departed sunset—earth of the mountains misty-top!
Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue!
Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river!
Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake!
Far-swooping elbow’d earth—rich apple-blossom’d earth!
Smile, for your lover comes.
The sciences of botany, biology, and physics have taught us that humans, along with all species that dwell on this Earth, are a part of a global bio-spiritual embryogenesis. As such, we must cognitively recognize that as a whole (let’s call it “Ο”) if we destroy any part, we are damaging ourselves. We must, therefore, muster all our creativity, commitment, and labor to preserve the life forces that brought us into existence. We must cherish our streams, rivers, oceans; we must appreciate the air that we breathe and strive to keep it clean and clear. We must harness the energy in the sun and wind, and stop raping and polluting the soil. We must have a reverence for all living creatures.
So on this 50th Anniversary of Earth Day let us hug, or better yet, plant a tree!
CPW
CPW
