Earth Day Should Last More than a Day

If You Clean it They'll Will Come
Earth Day is here; I hope you do something to celebrate the day, even if it’s thinking about how to help our beautiful blue planet maintain its health, and what legacy we’ll leave to our children. Another practical action will be to throw out the Republicans from office this coming November. I don’t think there’s been another US administration, including the Congress, more hostile to the environment. The Republican party is controlled by the lunatic fringe which doesn’t really like science. For example, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is led by an anti-environment champion, James Inhofe (R-OK) who prefers the “expert” testimony of fiction writers to that of scientists.

I think this country doesn’t fully appreciate science. I’m not sure that most Americans know what science is, its methodology, its tools, and its impact on the bettering & prolonging of human life. The dumbing down continues, and I don’t think it’s an accident that certain elites don’t want an educated public. Recently, I was told by people active in the ACLU’s fight against Intelligent Design as the case was unfolding in the courtroom in Dover, PA, that the consensus was to avoid painting this as a struggle between religion and science. The reason being that Americans would choose religion over science. The majority of our compatriots actually believe that humans were created in present form and that the Biblical account of Genesis should be taught alongside the theory of evolution! They also believe that Satan is an actual entity trying to destroy us, that Earth is under 10,000 years old, and that 44% believe that Jesus will probably return to Earth in their lifetime! If 59% believe that the prophesies found in the Book of Revelations are going to come true, and that 44% believe that we live in the “end of times,” then why worry about the environment? Especially if they believe that the faithful will be rescued!

For those of you who are free thinkers and are inquisitive, Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is an interesting book that examines past civilizations and the underlying reasons for their total collapse or extinction. The environment has played a very important role in fostering or dooming a civilization. Science is the best tool we have to understand the world we live in, and although this tool isn’t perfect [none is] it’s strength comes from looking at the facts and revising them after careful consideration. There is a global warming going on. Earth may be going through warm-cold cycles, but we’re the only species (in its history of billions of years) that in the last 100 years we’ve been pouring huge amounts of carbon dioxide and other toxic particles in the atmosphere and the oceans. This is having an effect; we may be tipping the balance beyond return. The worst effects will first be felt by the poorest people on our planet. Earth is our home and therefore it should get our attention and our tender loving care.

As I said in an earlier post, our salvation is only possible from within, that is, we humans have to be the custodians of this lonely planet. We are part of this ecosystem that gave birth to us. It’s insane to pollute and damage our own home. Unfortunately, it takes a collective effort to see results, and as long as intelligence-able people choose to stick their head in the sand, little can be accomplished. Let’s have an open and honest discussion, let’s examine the scientific facts, and set a serious course of action. At the very least, we there’s lots of room for improvement. Even in the absence of long-term ill effects, wouldn’t it be wiser to clean up our living space and the air we breathe? It’s pure common sense.