April 22, 2009 is Earth Day. It is almost 40 years since the first Earth Day celebrations in 1970. That gives ample reason to look back to the beginning of this event and to look forward to what much be accomplished in the next year, as Earth Day turns 40.
The first Earth Day was the idea of Wisc. Sen. Gaylord Nelson. The first national celebration became a bi-partisan affair with two co-chairs. Sen. Nelson, a Democrat and California's Representative Pete McCloskey, a Republican. The politics of the environment, and specifically that of climate change, is now such that any show of bipartisanship would probably not be possible.
Even from the perspective of only a decade,. Sen. Nelson felt the need to respond to rumors that the environmental movement was dead.
"So long as the human species inhabits the Earth, proper management of its resources will be the most fundamental issue we face. Our very survival will depend upon whether or not we are able to preserve, protect and defend our environment. We are not free to decide about whether or not our environment 'matters.' It does matter, apart from any political exigencies. We disregard the needs of our ecosystem at our mortal peril."
Once again, we are being told that the environmental movement is dead. It would seem that all of the movement is going another way. Never before have environmental issues been so clearly a matter for partisan politics with a significant split between Republicans and Democrats on the issue of climate change ... no I would rather use a more accurate term ... climate disruption.
There is no better time than Earth Day to consider the implication of that change of language. To call what is happening to this planet as "climate change" is to imply that it is gradual and might even be benign. There are those who claim to welcome it as bringing warmer weather to the colder climes where they live.
In fact, Earth's climate is changing at a rate that is unprecedented. Fluctuations that once took a thousand years are happening in less than a century.
In fact, as scientists accumulate more knowledge, they find that there are factors, such as the release of methane now trapped in Arctic permafrost, which will force even more rapid changes that originally forecast ... changes that will make Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth look as if he had been wearing rose tinted glasses.
Neither will these changes be benign. We are on the brink of a new series of water wars in California. The nation has not yet grasped the extent to which they depend on California grown food products. Without the water, there is no alfalfa. Without alfalfa, there are no cows. Got milk? It will be evident all too soon.
We are fortunate to live in a community that is beginning to take this seriously. Morgan Hill is making an attempt to reduce it's carbon (C02) contribution to the atmosphere. Our city government even sponsors carbon dieting clubs. That is a small step for Morgan Hill. We need a giant step for mankind.
Earth Day in Morgan Hill is now an annual event with an Art and Science Fair. I hope that the emphasis is increasingly on science.
In fact, I would love to see the Morgan Hill Times devote as much space to learning as they do to athletics. Just to run one story a month on student intellectual achievement. That would be a start.
We seem to live in an era in which there are two cultures, one that recognizes the role of science in understanding our physical world and one which is all to willing to put aside science when the answers it gives are threatening to dearly held beliefs.
Ads from American Petroleum Institute tells us that we need to drill more for energy freedom since we have enough oil and natural gas in North America for 60 years. They don't tell us what we will do then. That's OK. They will have our money and the Earth will be a little warmer. We are not good at dealing with a future that is more than six months from now.
It is time to stop listening to the liars, the lobbyists and the ideologues. They are the ones who found science so inconvenient that they convinced Congress to do away with the Office of Technological Assessment, not because they wanted to save money but because they could not control the answers.
You don't have to go somewhere special on Earth Day.
The environment is where we live, and work and play. Stop anywhere. Look at a tree, or a cloud. Think a while about what you want this Earth to become. It is in your hands.
Wes Rolley is a Morgan Hill artist and concerned citizen, the co-chair of the EcoAction Committee of the U.S. Green Party.
Wes Rolley Wes Rolley is an artist and concerned citizen. The Board of Contributors is comprised of local writers whose views appear on Tuesdays and Fridays.
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