Earth Day: If Not Now, Then When?

Hmmm, are we at the tipping point when there is no tomorrow if we do not act today?

If you paid attention to the Google doodle today, you know that April 22 is officially Earth Day – an official day devoted to drawing attention to environmental protection on this fragile planet we inhabit and to encourage us all to adopt environmentally friendly practices.

I have been aware of Earth Day for some time. But I did not know that its roots go back almost 50 years. The idea was born in 1969 when a devastating oil spill occurred off the coast of Santa Barbara, California.

As a devoted nature lover, Earth Day should be and is important to me. But I must confess that the pressures of daily life, and trying to keep my head above water (pardon the pun) in my work world, have distracted my attention from it. So I thought it incumbent upon me to do my part to demonstrate the importance of this initiative.

I found some interesting and also disturbing facts on the Youth Connect website that should make also all stand up and take notice.

Pollution negatively impacts over 100 million people. That’s on the same scale as global diseases like malaria and HIV.
One million + species have become extinct, or are facing extinction, due to global warming.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 34% since the 17th century and continues to steadily rise.
The human population has grown as much in the last 50 years as in the previous four million years.
Every second a portion of a rainforest the size of a football field is destroyed.
There is a garbage island floating in our oceans the size of India, Europe and Mexico combined. Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.
1/3 of the people on earth will be facing severe or chronic water shortages by 2025.
3.2 million children under the age of five in developing nations die each year as a result of unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation.

Many of us have at one time or another have used the term Mother Earth to personify the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature. But too often we – and I will hold myself accountable on this point as well – do not really take to heart the truth of that metaphor.

Mother Earth is suffering and we all must do our part to help her recover. If not now, then when? For when it is too late for her, it is also too late for us.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog .

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