Countdown to Earth Day 2008: A Call to Climate

The countdown clock to Earth Day is running as I write this. Earth Day has been around since 1970 but there are a convergence of events which make awareness and action more urgent.

For me personally, I notice all this:
- We have our first snow in April this late in the year ever and our cherry trees and tulips are covered this morning (see photo).
- One of the younger workers at the hospital where I work brought in a recycling bin and sent out an email that she would personally collect and turn in our recyclable items. Previously, they had gone unsorted straight to the landfill.
- Another volunteered last weekend at the Green Festival in Seattle, which I also attended.
- Two nights ago a nutritionist we know staged a one-woman show called the Food Folly Follies in which she used theatrical production to encourage consumption of Whole Foods.
- I recently agreed to work on the Health Care platform for the Northwest Progressive Institute, and ended up reading far more than I anticipated on the environment. I want to do more, starting with my own life and family.

Al Gore's new slideshow:

It seems that everything is interrelated, but people need to connect these dots to take action. Then they realize that their choices are related to outcomes they assumed were beyond their control or separate from themselves and their lives. It's election year and the issues are interconnected as well. Wars are not about terror, but over the inability to share shrinking resources that we should no longer be dependent on. Neither are the economy and the war separate issues, nor can "international" and "domestic" affairs be easily separated. It is no coincidence that we are in recession and simultaneously sunk in a quagmire.

Take an issue, such as healthcare costs, which can be related to poorly distributed food, poor quality nutrition, lack of good education about choices, and misprioritized budgeting. Then there is a tie in with cost of petroleum for trucking and availability of labor. These factors relate directly to globalization and foreign policy. It's hard to think of a problem that could not be traced back somehow to mismanagement of the resources on our planet.

Earth Day reminds us that we have to get our act together, for our own survival.

Earth Day grew out of a conference in 1969 in Seattle, where US Senator Gaylord Nelson announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment. That marked the birth of the modern environmental movement and is celebrated on April 22 each year. 1970 brought the Kent State shootings, the advent of fiber optics, Apollo 13, the Beatles last album, the death of Jimi Hendrix and the meltdown of fuel rods in the Savannah River. We still used leaded gas.

For the original Earth Day, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, worked with John Kerry on this project (I was thrilled to see them greet each other at a book reading last year.) 200 million people in 141 countries were mobilized that day.

Earth Day in 1990 gave a boost to recycling efforts worldwide. The 1992 United Nations Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro. Earth Day in 2000 (with Denis Hayes coordinating again), focussed on global warming and clean energy. Internet activists linked up globally and got 5000 environmental groups on board, reaching out to hundreds of millions in 184 countries. Hundreds of thousands gathered at the National Mall in Washington DC.

Earth Day 2007 involved an estimated 1,000,000,000 people with activities in Kiev, Caracas, Tuvalu, Maila, Togo, Madrid, London, New York and more.

Earth Day Network’s international network reaches over 17,000 organizations in 174 countries now, and the US program includes over 5000 groups and 25,000 educators. Earth Day is on a Tuesday this year, but many of the events to commemorate and further it will have happened on Sunday April 20.

EarthDay.net has alot of information about Earth Day events, which across the globe will have involved 1,000,000,000 people, give or take a few.

In the US Green Apple has organized for festivals in eight cities, including Washington DC, New York, Miami, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The concerts are free with fantastic lineups in landmark parks, with music, art and educational programs. Approximately half a million people will have attended these events.

Artists:
The Roots & Friends (featuring Doug E. Fresh, Ne-Yo, Talib Kweli, will.i.am Chrisette Michele and more) • Los Lonely Boys • O.A.R. Acoustic • The Neville Brothers • Ziggy Marley (Solo Acoustic) • Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder • Thievery Corporation • Mickey Hart's Mass Drums (featuring Jon Fishman, Tommy Lee and More!) • Taj Mahal • Gov't Mule • Umphrey's McGee • Big Head Todd & The Monsters • Menudo • Arrested Development • Meshell Nedegeocello • Martin Sexton and more.

Twenty seven years have passed since the first Earth Day. We face Global climate change. There isn't a day that goes by that we don't hear news stories about lead in toys or lipstick, e coli or hormones or Mad Cow disease in meat, gas prices, giant chunks of ice breaking off and increasing water temperatures, or (in some countries) food riots. In the US, we have an obesity epidemic, forty five million with no health insurance, and a dramatic increase in conditions such as autism. We have had two environmentalists nearly become President, in the face of a dominant power structure that is in bed with the oil industry giants. We all remember hearing the term "environmental wacko" or that the environment was a "sexy" issue, not something worthy of being seriously focussed on. We now see where this has led.

One of the biggest Earth Day events this year is April 20 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I heard on the morning of April 19 that Buenos Aires, which means "Clean Air," is consumed in sickly smoke resembling carbon monoxide, because the winds have turned toward the city when croplands are being burnt to make room for grazing cattle. What a supreme irony, as Buenos Aires has 13 million inhabitants.

We are all probably using those funny little flourescant bulbs and recycling, and we know all about the oil wars. My personal resolution is to find more ways to eat locally, to cut down on the use of fossil fuels in trucking and shipping foods in. It is not necessary to be able to eat strawberries all year. It is too costly for the planet.

I am going to list more resources for places to start, for ideas for how to do more.

World Wildlife
Plant a Billion Trees
National Environmental Education
Earth Day
Earth Day.Gov (not very impressive)
Earth 911
Earth Site
EarthDay envirolink
International Earth site
EarthDay Wildernes
EarthShare
Keep American Beautiful
Network EarthDay
(I haven't even scratched the surface. Also, there are two Earth Days, as you can find out on Wikipedia. They are both held in the spring. The United Nations celebrates Earth Day, which was founded by John McConnell in 1969, each year on the March equinox,.)