On the women’s march and the series of protests happening around the world at the moment, together combining to make perhaps the largest movement in history.
I was 19 years old when the concept of celebrating a special day for Mother Earth was coming to be. I remember the joy and the respect that surrounded this concept. We we celebrating our home, our planet. Problems were identified.
The need to step up to this challenge was recognized because something had to be done to preserve our home, to save it for future generations.
I’m sitting here in my office and I’m looking up at my bookshelves. I see books there that I got during those early years:
The End Of Nature, EarthRight, The Green Consumer, Topical Nature, Save Our Planet, Spiritual Ecology, 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth, How to Make The World A Better Place, Two Minutes A Day For A Greater Planet, Silent Spring, The Reclycler’s Handbook …
and several more.
I took Ecology classes in college. I participated in activities and the spirit was there. Something would be done by my generation to make Earth a healthier, safer and cherished place.
I have become an adult, a senior citizen and I look back … “celebrating 45 years”.
I wonder …. what has been done? What has been accomplished? Is Mother Earth healthy? Will we be able to hand down a sustainable planet to the next generation as we planned?
Sadly, I think not. They will have the same challenges and even more so because of the way my generation has “conducted business” and failed at making this wonderful planet what it should be. We failed to reverse the damages done by “progress”. And these still continue to this day.
We hear it all the time: climate change, carbon emissions, fossil fuels, burning rain forests, disappearance of endangered species, plastic pollution, environmental protection and so much more ….. There’s a lot to do; so much more than what was needed in 1969.
Like Prince Ea says: “Sorry, future generations“. It is a beautiful world. Stand up and get the job done.
Earth Day is an annual event, celebrated on April 22, on which day events worldwide are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It was first celebrated in 1970, and is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and celebrated in more than 192 countries each year.
In 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco, peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace, to first be celebrated on March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of nature’s equipoise was later sanctioned in a Proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations.
A month later a separate Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award in recognition of his work. While this April 22 Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations. Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.
Give back to Mother Earth this Earth Day – April 22nd, 2015 – by planting a new tree in your area, or by donating to have a tree planted in a developing nation.
It Is What It Is 