"Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children."
Native American proverb
Ever since mankind first orbited our planet more than 50 years ago, "Spaceship Earth" has been a popular image. Viewed from the near reaches of space, the Earth is seen as the oasis that it is - fragile, life-supporting, an integrated whole without boundaries or divisions. In all of the 6 trillion trillion square miles of the solar system, it is the only place intelligent life has ever evolved.
It wasn't long after the first manned moon landing that 20 million Americans took to the streets on the first Earth Day - April 22,1970. Coming at the end of the turbulent '60's, Earth Day was the brain child of Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. After witnessing the damage done by the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, Nelson announced his idea of a national "teach-in" on the environment. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, the enviroment could become part of the national political agenda. (The Earth Day Network website has a great clip on the NBC news report of the first Earth Day.)
Earth Day went global in 1990 and remains as relevant as ever today. Climate-change deniers and environmental-regulation reversers are out in full force. The ongoing economic crisis has shunted environmental concerns to a lonely siding.
As species die out and rain forests are cleared and glaciers melt, we should consider what kind of planet we are returning to our children and grandchildren. Will they work and play pollution- and toxin-free in a sustainable world filled with natural wonders and free of all phony divisions? I hope so. I hope we find the political will to make it so.
By mid-century, the world's human population will reach 9 billion souls - four times what it was a century before. Without some amazing technological breakthroughs, market-driven capitalism dependent on non-sustainable growth simply will not work. A new model is needed - perhaps that of "Spaceship Earth".
Happy Earth Day! Thanks for the vision of the Earth in that photo and your comments on the phony divisions vs there really being an integrated whole with no boundaries. That is the true vision that even all people participate in together. And, in fact, the true message that all seemingly separate nations, religions and peoples are truly yearning to be acknowledged deep at heart. Earth day is a good teaching lesson. We need to all go back to and get de-programmed in some new model as you say - a kind of school of unity and brotherhood.
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