Every Day Is Earth Day (Your Letters)
To the Editor:
To me, every day of the year is Earth Day, when we are charged to protect, conserve and maybe repair our natural environment.
My awareness of our natural environment started in high school when I decided to write my senior English paper on Albert Schweitzer. Schweitzer, a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1952, was a doctor, organist, theologian and humanitarian who had founded the jungle hospital in Lambaréné in Gabon, west central Africa, and who would periodically return to Europe to play Bach organ concerts to raise money for the hospital. It was his dedication to the profound principle he called Reverence for Life in all forms that left a lifelong impression on me.
The other concept I came to believe in and accept was the idea of living in harmony with the Earth. The Earth has a finite amount of natural resources — oil, metals, precious minerals — which we are extracting from the Earth (for free, I might add) — the supply of which, according to studies, we will exhaust from the Earth in just a few decades. Take the example of oil. Think about this: It takes 80 ton of prehistoric organic material to produce a single gallon of gasoline. And then after we extract and use all of these materials from our sacred Earth, we throw them away. Where is away?
Living in harmony with the Earth means getting our energy from the sun, not fossil fuels, using as many natural renewable materials, like wood, as possible and then recycling and rebuilding what eventually wears out. Before the industrial revolution, everyone lived this way.
So I have tried to practice those principles both in my professional life as an architect and in my personal life. I drive an electric car, have 28 solar panels on my roof and have been a vegetarian most of my life. Professionally, my former firm, Ashley McGraw Architects, has a long dedication to environmental friendly design.
So I am proud and delighted to celebrate Earth Day every day even though it is technically just celebrated every April 22.
David C. Ashley
Syracuse
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Earth Day In Lockdown: A Chance To Reimagine The Future
From New Delhi to Beijing, millions of people will be breathing cleaner air on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day….
And award-winning conservationists and filmmakers Derek and Beverly Joubert say the lockdowns around the world have created a chance to reimagine a different future…
(SOUNDBITE) (English) NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORERS, FILMMAKERS AND CONSERVATIONISTS, BEVERLY AND DERECK JOUBERT, ON CORONAVIRUS, SAYING:“'This has been such a traumatic thing for the world, that if we don't come out of it changed or better then it's been a tremendous waste of opportunity, and we should admonish ourselves."
The husband and wife team were filmed with lions in the Mara Plains in Kenya, part of a National Geographic film to mark 50 years of Earth Day called: "Born Wild: The Next Generation."
The one hour special highlights how species are faring and the chances for their survival.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORERS, FILMMAKERS AND CONSERVATIONISTS, BEVERLY AND DERECK JOUBERT, ASKED ABOUT MESSAGE OF THEIR SECTION OF THE FILM, SAYING: "So listen, when we were born there were 450,000 lions and today there are 20,000 lions and so if you project that shocking message alone people will get engaged and they get it.”
64-year-old Dereck Joubert, who with his wife has made over 25 films for National Geographic, acknowledged that a collapse in wildlife tourism as a result of the outbreak could see whole communities suffer and risk a spike in poaching if vast tracts of land are without visitors.
But Beverly Joubert said overall she still remained hopeful.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORERS, FILMMAKERS AND CONSERVATIONISTS, BEVERLY AND DERECK JOUBERT, ASKED ABOUT MESSAGE OF THEIR SECTION OF THE FILM, SAYING:
“The next generation is doing pretty phenomenally well in understanding that there's a problem and they want to try and fix it. We see Greta Thunberg for instance, speaking out and many kids around the world are now speaking out. So it does give us hope.”
Story continues
U.N. Chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged governments to use their economic responses to the outbreak to tackle the "even deeper emergency" of climate change, in his message for Earth Day.
And Derek Joubert repeated that message, encouraging the public to learn from this global pause:
(SOUNDBITE) (English) NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORERS, FILMMAKERS AND CONSERVATIONISTS, BEVERLY AND DERECK JOUBERT, ASKED ABOUT MESSAGE OF THEIR SECTION OF THE FILM, SAYING:
“You don't have these moments for nothing. You've got to grow from them. So I really hope that we don't simply go back to business as usual because that would be a tremendous waste of all the sadness and death.''
The first Earth Day took place on April 22nd, 1970 when millions of Americans took to the streets to protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward. It has since been adopted around the world.
Marin Activists Adapt Earth Day For Virus Crisis
Odd as it may seem, the 50th anniversary celebration of Earth Day and the international environmental movement it spurred will mostly be celebrated indoors on Wednesday.
The familiar events such as tree plantings, litter removal, conferences and outdoor celebrations in Marin and elsewhere will be swapped for online talks and events, in-home education on greener living and other actions conforming to social distancing practices during the coronavirus pandemic.
Clean Mill Valley co-director and founder Joan Murray said that in the absence of activity this year, there are still plenty of ways residents, businesses and groups can practice and share habits of environmental stewardship.
“The spirit will continue whether these things are canceled or not,” said Murray, who celebrated the first Earth Day in Marin 50 years ago.
Murray encourages those who have the ability to donate to an environmental organization to do so, even if it’s only $5.
“That would be very important,” she said. “I think we’re going to have some catching up to do in some areas.”
Greenbrae-based Cool the Earth, an environmental nonprofit that stages school plays, worked rapidly to adapt its “Adopt a Polar Bear” program for home viewing. With classrooms shuttered, the group developed a three-episode animated series about a polar bear and it sensitive habitat.
“We worked nonstop. We were working weekends,” co-founder and executive director Carleen Cullen said. “We really wanted to do something for all these kids stuck indoors. Everybody is just consumed with the COVID crisis and we didn’t want to let this pass for doing something for kids and families for Earth Day.”
The episodes are available in English and Spanish at cooltheearth.Org. For every 250 families that pledge to adopt environmentally friendly practices in their daily routines, Cool the Earth will make a donation to the World Wildlife Fund to restore polar bear habitats, Cullen said.
For Gretchen Schubeck, sustainability coordinator for the city of Novato, every day is Earth Day, whether it’s spent indoors or not. Postponing its normal Earth Day events until the fall, the city is shifting gears and focusing on actions that people can take at home that don’t require much, if any, spending.
Such practices include researching and choosing renewable energy sources, eating a plant-rich diet, placing food scraps in the green waste bin rather than the garbage, reducing overall waste and using less energy at home when possible.
There are parallels, Schubeck said, between the collective actions being taken now and those during the first Earth Day. On April 22, 1970, 20 million people called for greater protection of the planet and its natural resources. Now millions of Americans are working to prevent the spread of the coronavirus for the benefit of public health.
In the years following the first Earth Day, federal officials created the Environmental Protection Agency and enacted landmark laws such as the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.
“I’m really hoping that people can take a pause and remember what happened 50 years ago and how far we’ve come and how much further we need to go,” Schubeck said. “That the work isn’t done especially in light of COVID-19.”
Calliope Ruskin, 13, of Marin Montessori school, leads a chant during the Global Climate Strike demonstration at the City Plaza in San Rafael on Friday, Sept. 20, 2019. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)
A renewal of youth climate action across the world in recent years had led local students such as Calliope Ruskin, 13, of San Rafael to organizing climate strikes with peers last year. While residents must remain indoors for the time being, Calliope said, they can still be activists from their homes by researching renewable energy or emailing government officials.
“When you go to the store or order online, it seems there are more options to try to not buy things with as much plastic,” she said. “You can grow your own food from home. If you live somewhere near where you can hike, bring some water to the trees.”
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is still evaluating data on how the reduction in traffic congestion this past month has affected greenhouse gas emissions. Early estimates based on a “conservative” 70% reduction in traffic volume show a “significant” 20% drop in particulate matter-2.5 pollutants, a 38% drop in nitrogen oxide and a 26% drop in carbon dioxide emissions, according to district communications manager Kristine Roselius. However, the level of emissions is expected to increase when the “shelter in place” order is lifted.
Those still on the road or riding transit might come across a mobile Earth Day message in the form of an unusual Golden Gate Transit bus.
In honor of Earth Day’s half-century anniversary, longtime environmental activist and artist George Sumner of Marinwood painted a new bus wrap featuring a variety of whales in Monterey Bay. The bus is the fourth that Sumner, 79, has painted, and the first hybrid.
School children and their parents have likely seen some of Sumner’s work in the past 30 years. He and his wife Donnalei Sumner travel to schools with the buses to teach about environmental stewardship.
Donnalei Sumner said whether it was kids organizing creek cleanups or collecting donations for whale conservation, local residents have already shown an “incredible kindred spirit.”
“We want people to really think about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it,” she said. “They can do that with their hearts, heads and hands — anything you can to help out.”
Having advocated for and witnessed the changes in environmental action since the first Earth Day 50 years ago, George Sumner said he is discouraged to see many of the changes being threatened under the current federal administration.
“It’s sadly for political reasons and corporate greed that many of our hard-fought environmental laws are being shamelessly dismantled and that is a tragedy,” he said. “America needs to wake up. They need to vote, not only in making change, but they need to do it with a social, environmental consciousness.”
More information about national and local Earth Day events can be found at earthday.Org.
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Reviewed by Ali khan
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April 22, 2020
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