Earth Day Edition

Almost one year ago my first Linked In article was published, 52 Years of Earth Day.?It was a modest attempt to inspire readers to climate action beyond a once-a-year ritual.?More importantly, that article was the start of a more serious endeavor, this newsletter.?On the very first Earth Day our high school had a teach-in.?My English teacher, Mrs. Blunt, was a short, older woman – white hair, round wire-rimmed glasses, relatively soft-spoken, low affect and unflappable. ?Our class was being introduced to the Smokey the Bear Sutra by Gary Snyder.?This poem/sutra was one of the introductory essays in The Environmental Handbook, published to support the teach-ins.?Looking back, it was an edgy piece of writing for a class full of 16-year-olds.?All across the US more than 20 million people attended teach-ins and demonstrations.?According to Wikipedia, “the first Earth Day remains the largest single-day protest in human history.”?Only in hindsight can I begin to understand the seeds that were sown on that day, April 22, 1970.

Many see the first Earth Day as the birth of the environmental movement.?The 70’s was an era of major legislative progress in the US – the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act.?Believe it or not, it was the Nixon administration that established the Environmental Protection Agency. ?This was back when environmentalism was not considered Democratic or Republican. ?Our country has certainly regressed.

Take a short skip to June, 1979.?Travelling as a post-college backpacker, I’m sitting in a café in Copan Honduras reading the newspaper.?Per the journal entry, “scientists have finally concluded that CO2 accumulation is definitely creating a greenhouse effect.?This is something ecologists have known for years – the scientists said that in order to avoid disaster, drastic measures must be taken now – by 1990 it will be too late…”?The world apparently had more runway than predicted.?Internal memos confirm Exxon was well aware of this situation.?Here is a quote dated November 12, 1982, “our best estimate is that doubling of the current concentration could increase average global temperature by about 1.3 degrees celsius to 3.1 degrees celsius.”? In 1988, Shell Oil predicted our current scenario with more precision.?These documents were purposefully kept out of the public eye until they were both leaked over the past 10 years.?

Exactly thirty-three years and one month after Exxon’s memo, 196 nations adopted the Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change.?It was officially signed on Earth Day, 2016.?In the words of the official UN website, “Its overarching goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”?

Why did it take 33 years???Some random thoughts….

• Ask your favorite fossil fuel executive
• “The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change.” – Edwin Friedman
• Add your own thoughts in the comments section

So, here we are, approaching the 53rd Earth Day, with a lot less runway.?In the words of veteran climate change activist Bill McKibben, we are now in The Crucial Years.?Is it too late??Is it not too late??That’s not for us to answer.?I believe we have to act as if it is Not Too Late.?Turning everyone into a climate change agent is not a requirement.?In the Climate Justice Field Manual, there is a reference to social movement researchers, Chenoweth & Stephan. While creating broad public support is the objective for a movement such as ours, according to these researchers, only 3.5% of the population needs to actually take a stand and participate.?That means we need 11.6 million climate change agents in the US.?Let’s make it happen!

Earthday.org is the official home of Earth Day.?This year’s theme is Invest in Our Planet.?There are hundreds of events happening all over the US and the world this Saturday.?Check out this map – there is likely an event happening somewhere near you.?As a final thought, here’s another fitting poem by Gary Snyder from 1974.

For the Children

The rising hills, the slopes

of statistics

lie before us.

The steep climb

of everything, going up,

up, as we all

go down.

In the next century

or the one beyond that,

they say,

are valleys, pastures,

we can meet there in peace

if we make it.

To climb these coming crests

one word to you, to

you and your children:

stay together

learn the flowers

go light