EARTH DAY must be Everyday!

Climate scientists are telling us we are running out of time to get global climate temperatures under control. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a “final warning” on March 20, 2023: “The world is on the brink of irrevocable damage.”

Glaciers are melting and sea levels are rising, causing the loss of islands, coastal communities and livelihoods. Polar bears are starving, monarch butterflies and bees are disappearing. The destruction of the tropical rainforest reduces a significant amount of the planet’s vegetation that absorbs large quantities of the CO2 emitted by fossil fuels. 2022 was the worst year for severe wildfires, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes - erratic weather experienced even here in New Mexico. Scientists predict such severe weather will only get worse. Is this the future we want for our children and grandchildren? How has humankind gotten to a position where our actions are destroying the very way of life, we think we want? Our desire for electronic gadgets and other material items is called progress. We know we can’t live without our computers and cell phones - they have added to our quality of life and are often lifesavers even though extracting the elements used in their components causes environmental destruction.

However, we have lost a balance in our lives and in our world. Most of the industrialized world have lost connections with Nature’s cycles. Our ancestors understood and relied on these seasonal rhythms. Now we water our deserts, raise household temps when we could add a sweater, wear thermals, or put on a pair of knee highs or leggings, shower daily out of habit, not need, and dry our dishes and clothes completely in machines rather than by air, and many other activities. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg informs us “We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to change.” IF humans strive to make change, there might be hope.

For a culture to avoid self-destruction as it progresses, writes Henry George in his classic 1883 work Social Problems, it must develop “a higher conscience, a keener sense of justice, a warmer brotherhood, a wider, loftier, truer public spirit,” while ensuring responsible and visionary leaders who embrace “the mental and moral universe.” By stark contrast, as John E Schumaker explains, modern consumer culture barrels in the opposite direction, breeding an increasingly trivialized and disengaged strain of personhood, devoid of the “loftier” qualities needed to sustain a viable society and healthy life supports.

Environmental prophets have been a part of our history: the author of the Biblical book Genesis, Saint Francis of Assisi, Hildegard of Bingen, Chief Seattle, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Al Gore, Bill Nye (“The Science Guy”), Pope