Earth Day 2009 is coming. When did Earth Day begin? Why have an Earth Day? The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. It was led by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, coordinated by Harvard graduate student Denis Hayes, and geared toward college students across the country. It sought to stir action outside the political process to address the country's increasing environmental degradation.
What's so important about Earth Day in 2009? Earth Day encourages responsibility, respect, and knowledge of nature and its ecosystems, which are the basis for all life on Earth. Humans are part of the Earth, and without a healthy Earth, human life cannot prosper. By knowing how to keep the Earth and its ecosystems healthy, we build sustainability into our future.
I didn't come to an Earth-friendly outlook until 13 years after the first Earth Day when I was 46. Although I had always enjoyed walking in natural areas, the culture I lived, learned, and worked in up to that time had such little pride and knowledge of its natural heritage that it had been unable to give itself, including me, much knowledge or experience of it and its possibilities and problems. My big awakening came in the autumn of 1983 when I took the first course toward obtaining a master's degree in liberal studies titled, The Fate of the Earth and Human Responsibility. Along with my final paper, I wrote a poem that relayed some of my new understanding of human responsibility for the Earth.
Perspectives on the Planet.
Humankind, you are an urban pigeon
Soiling your turf and that of others,
Banding together in aimless flocks,
A beggar living off others and
Flapping your wings in mock freedom.
The vestige of your ancestry remains
To ruffle your feathers.
You could be a dove,
Harbinger of peace.
All these years later, I apologize to urban pigeons for my belittling portrayal of them. Now I know they are evolutionary survivors, having successfully adapted to the environment humans made for them.
In my road to Earth Day awareness, I was fortunate that Baxter International, where I worked in environmental management beginning in 1981, took the emerging environmental challenges seriously. It adopted and periodically updated environmental policies and standards. Pioneering environmental management transparency, it began regularly reporting on its environmental performance to the public in 1992. Baxter also required the environmental managers at its facilities to build the "environmental awareness of management, employees who are not environmental professionals, and new employees." Facilities were also required to sponsor participation in community environmental activities or programs. Between 1991 and 2002 when I retired, I participated in Baxter's community awareness efforts in a variety of ways.
As part of Baxter's 1991 participation in the community's Earth Day activities, a co-worker and I (right) help clean up debris at Ryerson Woods Forest Preserve in Deerfield, IL.
Larger facilities, such as the corporate complex where I worked, often had an Earth Day Fair. A fair provided an interesting and fun means for a facility to educate non-environmental employees about its environmental initiatives and how they helped the environment. Suppliers and community groups often participated in the event.
The reusable tote bag I bought at Baxter's Earth Day Fair in 1992. I carry it in the trunk of my car for ready access and estimate I've used it 900 times since I purchased it. The bag remains sturdy enough for heavy items. I periodically wash it with other dark-colored totes.
Had I used 900 bags that I then discarded as waste, I would have used more natural resources, such as trees, to make 900 new bags for toting my things. I also would have increased the amount of waste sent to a landfill.
My work at Baxter gave me a good understanding of environmental issues from a business and regulatory point of view, but I still didn't know much about the workings of nature. Eager to learn, during the 1990s I attended Saturday and evening naturalist and ornithology classes at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. Knowing more about nature and its processes helped me better appreciate it and view nature from a more enlightened frame of reference. It also made me realize how much more I didn't know. Most importantly, I could share my new knowledge with others and help them know and wonder about the intricacies of nature.
I man an Earth Day booth at Baxter's Earth Day Fair in April 2002, two months before my retirement. Others had prepared the booth showing wildflowers native to the Chicago area, but I was better prepared to be able to expand on the information presented to those who stopped by. (Photo scanned from a paper image I had of the photo.)
In the mid 1990s, I began to envision making Earth Day the first global holiday, and in 2007 I shared these thoughts in a Gather post, Make Earth Day a global holiday.
What am I doing to celebrate Earth Day this year? I'm planning to share my knowledge and love of nature with fellow residents of Sedgebrook Retirement Community by leading a woodland wildflower walk.
Announcement of the Earth Day Woodland Wildflower Walk for residents of Sedgebrook Retirement Community. I moved to Sedgebrook in 2008.
One of the wildflowers we are likely to see on our walk is bloodroot.
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria Canadensis) blooms early in rich, moist but well-drained woodlands in Illinois.
What about you? Do you plan to celebrate Earth Day or recognize it in some way this year?
Nature underpins human life on our planet home, the Earth. The more we know about the Earth, the better equipped we are to deal with the exigencies of sustainability that we face.
Happy Earth Day!
Healthy Earth!
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Comments: 15
I couldn't help laughing over your poem comparing humans to pigeons. But the final lines, suggesting that we would be better if we emulated doves, harbingers of peace, made me think of the mourning doves that visit the feeders in my back yard. They are anything BUT peaceful! They are so aggressive towards each other! More so than any other birds that I watch. They literally attack each other, the stronger ones driving the others away from the feeders sometimes. At other times, they seem to coexist for awhile, and then suddenly...WAR!
Doves carrying olive branches? Not in my back yard!
Perhaps our symbols, as well as our mores, need an overhaul.
Thanks for your comments.
Since then, I have not done much besides the usual recycling and conservation practices at home. I do take any excuse to plant trees in our property... to honor birthdays, to commemorate events, to celebrate a life...
And on a side note, I was so pleased to discover that Wal-Mart is now selling inexpensive reusable tote bags at their check out counters. It is nice to know that this movement is infiltrating the world of consumerism to this degree.
Not only are reusable tote bags more available, some merchants are providing financial incentives to customers for bringing their own bags. Whole Foods pays ten cents for each bag you bring for your purchases. At Trader Joe's, customers who bring in their own bag(s) receive a raffle ticket for a monthly drawing for a large shopping bag of groceries. They began this in 2007, and I won the raffle in February 2007.
I love the point you make about your tote bag! Just think of all the bags you have saved from the refuse pile. There was a real stigma attached to doing something like that for years. I would get strange looks at the grocery store when I used to bring my backpack or tote bags...I also used to walk to the grocery, a foreign concept. Now it's all normal, but just think of what could have been achieved if everyone had gotten that idea sooner.
I guess we can only go from here, but sometimes I get impatient with the progress...like when the Congress was complaining that making federal buildings energy efficient was a waste of taxpayer's money! Argh.
End of rant.
Why is it so hard to move people to change when maintaining the status quo will result in a worsening of life? Below are several things that I think contribute to that mindset.
1. Lack of knowledge.
2. Short-term thinking. Not looking at the big picture, which takes knowledge from the past and present to forge new approaches for the present (short-term) and future (long term).
3. Fear of loss and/or the unknown. Vested interests stand to lose something, such as identity, security, and way of life.
To move forward, we need to address these normal emotional components.
1. Address lack of knowledge by emphasizing lifelong learning. Make science and other more arcane or difficult areas of knowledge more readily understandable, such as, write adult books about science at a children's level. Expose people to unfamiliar areas of knowledge. Example: Visitors will be allowed to view scientists at work from a viewer's gallery when the new Plant Science Center at Chicago Botanic Garden opens in September. Message boards will explain what they are doing.
2 & 3. Set up support systems to help people, government, businesses, etc. make the physical, emotional, behavioral, financial and intellectual transitions necessary to change.