Earth Day: Love this Planet

Earth Day, which started in 1970, was originally much more emphatic than anything we’re likely to see these days. For example, thirty-nine years ago demonstrators poured oil over the sidewalk at the Department of the Interior, in Washington, to protest oil spills. Then the focus was pollution. But now, even with Global Warming a recently acknowledged fact in the US, we’re unlikely to see any such protests. As the situation has become more dire the public seems to have become more complacent and depressed.

That’s what the newspapers would have us believe.

But wait; the lack of on-the-street activism does not mean the spirit of Earth Day has been lost. Those oil spills have diminished as oil tankers are now forbidden to flush their tanks at sea. And when the Exxon Valdez ran aground and spewed millions of gallons of crude over Alaska’s coast it did become a major issue that changed legislation. We are more aware than we were. People are recycling and using energy efficient appliances and cars. Things could be worse.

The balance has changed, it seems, to something gentler. People are able, now, to protest less and appreciate and love this planet more. Not all of them can manage it, of course, but I’m surprised by how many actually do. So let us focus on the growing love and reverence we have for this precious plot, this earth, which is all we have. Legislation is necessary, but it is only when we love the earth that we’ll stop mistreating it. And we’ll only love it when we love ourselves.

When we pollute the earth we poison ourselves. When we trash our resources, we trash part of our future. When we destroy our places of natural beauty we take away our own personal beauty. Everything we do to the earth we do to ourselves. So why not start loving ourselves?

That would be a good start on this Earth Day.