The 50th anniversary of Earth Day is today: April 22, 2020.
One amazing photo of the Earth taken from above the moon in 1969 struck a nerve and got many of us thinking about what became suddenly obvious. We, as a species, realized that WE are all WE have.
Earth Day is the by-product of that epiphany, the year after Nell Armstrong took “one small step for man,” April 22, 1970. It’s there to remind us that not only are we defined by human-made political boundaries, but by the boundaries of space and time. Sometimes we forget where we live.
A good friend’s Facebook post showing the beautiful blue skies over Paris and a recent story about dolphins returning to Venice (though later debunked as fake by The National Geographic) reminded me of several environmental research reports that appeared shortly after 9/11. Their conclusion: the Earth seemed to be trying to repair itself while we curtailed our air travel.
More recently, NASA reported seeing cleaner air over China, though not all is as it seems. Check out NASA’s report here. Don’t believe the hoax about more sulfur in the air.
It appears air pollution over Paris and Los Angeles has dropped dramatically, too.
I am not advocating hunkering down till we die of old age, just pointing out that whatever we’re doing now to protect ourselves from Clovid-19 is inadvertently giving the Earth’s air, water, and other creatures a chance to take a vacation from human activity.
Quite possible, it may prove to some climate-change deniers that in a large part, our actions on this planet affect everything.
And, to those working to convince the world that the changing climate is due in large part to human activity, it’s going to be further confirmation that they’re on the right track.
And, to those who think there’s nothing we can do to halt global warming and other human-caused calamities, I think this proves there is.
Imagine if Earth Day became Earth Month every leap year. One month of hunkering down, where all human industrial activity stops for a month while we reacquaint ourselves with our families, friends, and neighbors. When it’s over, we can celebrate (without fireworks).
I think we can get used to that.
We can even plan for it. Make it a celebration, not a prison sentence. Many religions on Earth do something like it every year, but for their reasons.
I don’t think it’s too much of a leap.
We’ve got four years to plan that party.