Today is Earth Day! While we are wondering exactly what we should be doing about it today, let’s take a deeper look at what “Earth Day” really is.
Earth Day, quite frankly, is a rather curious day. It’s not a holiday, nor is it really a celebration or an observance. It is, however, a day that is designed to inspire awareness and foster a greater understanding and appreciation of our planet home – the place where we all live – Earth.
The first Earth Day was April 22, 1970, founded to help build and garner greater political support for an environmental agenda throughout the United States government. The founder and organizer of that Earth Day was environmental activist Gaylord Nelson, who was serving as a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin.
Rachel Carson is credited with starting the environmental movement.
You see, it was just about eight years earlier in 1962 that Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, boldly presented the sobering facts about how human activity was having a seriously detrimental effect on our natural environment, particularly the use of pesticides and their devastating effects on birds and other wildlife. The spotlight this placed on industry and the hotbed of public reaction that ultimately emanated from this book – the first of its kind – are what have widely credited Rachel Carson with starting the environmental movement.
As a result, one of the first of many corrective actions the government took – and after industry finally conceded (meaning not being able to hide) the fact that they were creating products that seriously and materially harmed the environment and ultimately human health – certain pesticides were ultimately banned from use. The most notorious and well-known of these pesticides was DDT, a synthetic compound used extensively in agriculture against insects, which also had serious effects on human health.
That ban took place in 1972 in the U.S. and was eventually banned worldwide under the Stockholm Convention. Two years prior to DDT’s ban in the U.S., Earth Day was founded by a leading environmentalist in the government that banned the lethal pesticide. Today, Earth Day is recognized in over 175 countries around the world and is coordinated by the Earth Day Network (EDN). EDN’s stated mission is to broaden, diversify and activate the environmental movement worldwide, through education, public policy, and consumer campaigns.
A Cause of Nobility?
Ironically, Earth Day (and the environmental movement) was founded in the heart of a country that has 4.5% of the world’s population yet consumes more than a quarter of the world’s resources, particularly energy (Source: WorldWatch Institute). In fact, if the entire Earth population consumed resources at the same rate as Americans we would need somewhere between three to 10 Earths! This is definitely not sustainable.
Yet, Americans know they have to change their ways and they are making great strides and efforts to do so. They brought us Earth Day to start with, and they gave us Rachel Carson. The US government has put forth myriad legislative actions designed to protect its natural resources and help industry to help US citizens live a more sensible, sustainable life.
And let’s not forget Arbor Day – it was founded in 1872 in the state of Nebraska and an estimated one million trees were planted that day. Now there is a celebration! A celebration that came to my elementary school every spring and we planted trees. That was special! That day is also celebrated in many countries around the world including Australia, China, Canada, Central Republic of Africa, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Venezuela, Costa Rica, South Africa, Netherlands and many others.
Today, pretty much the entire world embraces Earth Day. It is a very noble day with a very noble cause aimed at bringing about pro-environmental awareness and inspiration. This is good, but I do not believe it is good enough.
Every Day Environmental Challenges
Every single day, people throughout the world face countless environmental challenges that impact their livelihoods, health and their very state of being. One billion of Earth’s 6.9 billion inhabitants face starvation, potable water is in short supply, and food wars are breaking out in various regions.
Oil Spill - Gulf of Mexico 2010
Industry — which provides everything for human use and consumption from food, medicine and clothing to energy, housing, and transportation and millions of other things that make life nicer – inherently creates its own challenges to the human condition by creating massive oil spills, over farming once productive lands, and generating wastes that pollute natural water sources and once pristine lands… just to mention a few.
And, yet, Earth itself poses its own challenges to the human condition. Just look at the magnitude 8.9 earthquake that hit Japan last March, the hurricanes and typhoons that wreak havoc in the northern and southern hemispheres each year, droughts, fires, flooding, tsunamis,volcanoes, etc., etc.
BY the way, that’s not Earth fighting back, as one television network boldly claims for its Earth Day promotion… that is Earth continuing to change and evolve.
It’s a real shame that businesses will try to promote Earth Day as a way of bringing attention to itself. That is as sad as the green-washing green marketing we all saw come with great zeal in the early 1990s. Now that considerably set back the values held by Earth Day and the “environmental movement” itself, and it looked as if Earth Day would be cast aside as a tree-huggers day in the sun, passed off as curiosity.
Earth Day’s Inescapable Values
But Earth Day is too noble a cause for that to happen. Its values have been instilled in hundreds of millions of people worldwide, and celebrations are held to commemorate this special day.
Now, here is the real problem as I see it… Earth Day falls way, way short of its owns tremendous values. Earth Day, as a time to inspire awareness and remind people of the preciousness and value of the natural environment to human existence, is completely short-sighted.
No, Earth Day should occur every single day with as much enthusiasm, passion, compassion, intelligence and human insight behind it as the singular Earth Day itself is designed to do.
People want to see this. They don’t want to just bring it off the shelf for one day every year.
This expose is about the day itself. It is great work. It represents values that must become so ingrained in people’s daily lives as to become a common value of living and commerce. Much like the love of a parent for a child… as the saying goes, there is no Children’s Day like there is a Mother’s Day and a Father’s Day because every day is children’s day. That is so absolutely true.
A Slight Change in Scope for Earth Day, Perhaps?
Earth Day itself needs a specific reason to celebrate. It should be put on the calendar along with other major international holidays because it represents the one absolutely essential element of everything in our lives and living. That is the planet itself, our home, sustenance and reason for existing any way you slice it.
Considering that Earth formed some 4.5 billion years ago, why not celebrate it as a birthday of someone special that had such a powerful impact on the lives of so many in such noble ways: Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Princess Diana, Jesus of Nazareth, The Prophet Mohammad, Martin Luther, Buddha.
Why not simply celebrate Earth? Make it an international holiday or festival where people truly celebrate the beauty, wonders and mystique of Earth and resources, and use that as an annual re-commitment to be better and smarter stewards in all facets of living, commerce and growth. Make a pledge each year to accomplish specific goals in the year to come… from individuals to industry and government. Now that would be one great celebration!
Happy 4,540,000,000th Birthday!
