Earth Day
I was in high school in 1970, when the first Earth Day happened. I had a teenage girl crush on Cat Stevens, Shawn Phillips and Justin Hayward. I had wire rim glasses, I skipped study hall to stand outside with the rebels, smoking, like the cool kids we thought we were. I was suspended that year for this, my choir teacher complained. Apparently he had some pull. We had several walkouts protesting Vietnam. High school was my petrie dish.
There was a presentation in the school auditorium that day. Many of us bought Earth Shoes in anticipation of the event. We were full of righteous indignation about many things and now there was another. Somehow wearing a particular shoe to show how committed we were seemed right to the teenage mind.
Fifty-two years have passed since this first Earth Day. We listened to lectures on the fragility of the earth's atmosphere. Did we listen then? Maybe. I think it was more about shoes for us. Are we listening now?
Yes, many are. Listening and doing are not the same thing though, are they.
Biden is talking about ramping up nuclear power to provide clean energy. Nuclear power isn't clean. We never have been able to figure out how to handle the toxic, never becomes non-toxic, waste. Is it such a stretch to put those billions into solar? Why is the human brain seemingly so limited it cannot see what is in front of it?
We talk about history and how it will remember what has happened in the US, like everything is normal, other than that other stuff, like you know, people going mad. The earth isn't hitting the pause button. It's heating up. Climate is changing. What history are we talking about? People don't want to look it squarely in the, what, tornadoes in southern Minnesota while we have snow on the ground?
Mark used to call me Debbie Downer. Now he says I'm still Debby Downer, but I'm right. I'm not right. The people I've paid close attention to the past couple of decades are right. If I could hear them, why couldn't/wouldn't those with the power to do something hear them? I think that answer is clear. Too bad the earth doesn't care about money.
Fifty-two years.
3 comments:
the earth doesn't give a shit. especially about lobbyists and special interests. and it will be here long after we are gone. what on that earth were we thinking?
There isn't thinking. Somehow humans seem unable to grasp their own impending extinction.
I've always been an Activist when it comes to Mother Earth and Stewardship of her and her Creatures, along with basic Humanity towards all Human Beings. It was considered a strange concept way back when and honestly, seems strange to a lot of people now... even tho' the evidence is alarming that unless the World quits the Madness, we may not have a Health Planet that will sustain a Future for our Species, or perhaps any other. My Dad was of Native American Ancestry and he never understood how Non-Natives viewed 'Ownership' of the Earth or it's inhabitants. I've been labeled a lot of Negative things by people who view my ways as an Old Hippie as being Environmentally Extreme... The Man and I spend many Hours doing volunteer Environmental Clean-Up and so many people look at us as if we're Mental... especially given we can go to the very same places just a couple days later and have to clean it all up again from the irresponsible and lazy being reckless and clueless about the damage they cause to a fragile Ecosystem.
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