Dear Editor,
Monday, April 22 was the official Earth Day, where we honoured our dependence on our home planet for all our air, water, and food … and a whole lot more, like beauty in Nature, source of building materials for our homes, heat for our homes, fuel for our transportation, medicine for our ailments, and inspiration for our music and poetry.
At the same time, we can well remember every day our dependence on Earth for all these gifts. Where would we be without Her? 49 years ago, 20 million people took to the streets to demand that governments put the issue of environmental protection on the national political agenda. Earth’s precious resources need more protection from polluters and plunderers and lots more restoration than at that time.
Spring, with the melting of snow, is a great time to be out walking with a bag in hand to gather up any and all litter that has fallen from someone’s hand or been blown astray by wind’s actions. Similarly many of us are going around our homes raking, gathering and cleaning up visible objects that were under the snow that are not what we have in mind for a welcoming and nurturing home atmosphere.
As Earth Day reminds us, the whole planet is our home and if we are thinking we’ll be able to receive Her gifts into the future, how can we imagine fouling Her air, water and soils with poisons, oil spills, clear cuts and allowing corporations to walk away from their scenes of pollution, leaving the clean ups to taxpayer-funded methods? Some people seem to believe that the “one who dies with the most toys accumulated and the biggest bank account” is the winner…. Others agree that leaving behind the most love when we die, and leaving Earth better than we received Her, is a path with more heart, and with more honour.
We must be the example we wish to see in the world. If we wish to leave Earth in better shape than when we were born onto Her, it can no longer be “business as usual.” We are blessed to be able to live on a planet of such beauty. Compare our environment with those of other planets in our Solar system. Why did we each come here? Was it just to “be on the take?” Can we actually live with less, more like our ancestors did? With gratitude for what we do have every day?
May we all take steps every day to be the example that our children, our descendants, can be inspired by to actively care for Earth, lest we be the first species to document our own extinction. With so much loss of biodiversity around the globe happening all the time now, we need to begin to see once more a planet, our Earth, that is worth working hard to care for, to take care of, and to live and play on.
With gratitude to Earth, and with prayers for the rejuvenation of Her health,
Robbie Anderman
Killaloe ON
