How did you celebrate Earth Day? This year an estimated 1 billion people participated in Earth Day events world-wide around April 22. For the last 42 years, this international day of awareness-raising and festivities has provided a needed focus on the health of local ecosystems and our planet. While a lot of good has come from the first Earth Day begun by Senator Nelson and his “teach-in” on the mall in Washington D.C. in 1970, much remains to be done.
Humanity’s impact on the Earth is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. Some scientists at Stanford are taking a new look at geologic time and are proposing we’ve entered into a new geologic era: the Anthropocene. Most scientists recognize the Holocene, our current era, in the grand scale of geologic time. The Holocene is also called the Anthropogene, meaning the “Age of Man”. This geologic era spans from the last major Ice Age and includes ancient civilizations as well as our current time. There are fascinating interviews on the Anthropocene Generation website with professors and researchers from multiple disciplines exploring the question of when the era began. They're also trying to determine what’s been affected by our activities; evidently, there remains very little that we haven't impacted in some way. Aldo Leopold had a saying that you shouldn’t throw away any of the parts if you “tinker” with natural systems. Predictions forecast that a stunning 20% of the world’s species will go extinct in the next 25 years, a serious loss of parts.
With our fingerprints present in every part of the earth -- far-flung seas, the highest mountains and from pole to pole -- we need to consider our sheer numbers and the impacts of our lifestyles.
There’s hope when there are people concerned about the environment who take action. President Obama said in 2010, "The true story of the environmental movement is not about the laws that have been passed. It’s about the citizens who have come together time and time again to demand cleaner air, healthier drinking water and safer food -– and who have demanded that their representatives in government hold polluters accountable." (Voice of America News)
So help keep the Earth Day spirit going: organize a beach or neighborhood cleanup, plant a tree or native plant garden, choose to live more lightly on the Earth (and here's a quiz that will help you find your environmental footprint). Keep encouraging our kids to get outdoors and help them connect with nature so they will also value our irreplaceable home planet. Celebrate Earth Day every day, keep it alive and well for everyone’s sake.