Celebrating the Earth

The miracles that nature delivers continue to amaze me, though you'd think after so many years on earth, I'd be getting accustomed to them. 

Still, looking at the photo above, it's hard to imagine that at least some of those flowers will sometime in August be ready-to-eat peaches. 

But miracles aside, it seems odd (a polite term) that today should be the day when our own "Mr Drill Baby Drill" should finally be releasing details of his party's platform, one that will no doubt include plans for more pipelines, more reliance on fossil fuels, more pretending that climate change isn't a critical issue. Am I the only one to notice the irony of these announcements on Earth Day? 

As I'm finding my own ways to observe this year's Earth Day, I'm happy to think of it as an event we should be celebrating every day!

Time for listening

Once again, it's Earth Day, a time to celebrate the beauties of our planet--and, as the sign suggests, to hear (and really listen) to information scientists keep bringing us. As most of us know, their messages aren't good. 

The word in the photo consists of images frozen into ice. They're part of a longtime exhibit on display in the lobby area of the Surrey Arts Centre. Like the ice in our polar regions, those letters too appear to be melting. 

Despite what our governments are (and aren't) doing, there seem to be a number of solutions, probably starting with making sure our tax monies don't go to supporting oil extraction. The time for subsidizing these economic giants is gone. Even the banks are beginning to divest their investments in oil companies. Other jurisdictions have taken similar steps, and continue encouraging people to invest in alternate energy sources. In California, solar panels on roofs have proven to be too successful (!) with the power company experiencing a glut of its resources because folks are no longer reliant on them. 

Even beyond what we think of as the 'traditional' alternatives--solar and wind--there are other, sometimes controversial solutions being proposed. 

I do like that the word 'hear' shares enough letters with our planet's name to make me think it's appropriate for Earth Day. Besides, it's always a good idea to listen, whether that means hearing the variety of birdsongs in the air during these spring days, or doing our best to listen to everyone we meet, even if their point-of-view doesn't complete jibe with our own. After all, that's our only hope for creating meaningful communities, and communities are what it will take to keep our planet habitable. 

Thinking about our planet on Earth Day

When founders established Earth Day back in 1970, I wonder whether they dreamed the observance would still be going in 2023. I also wonder whether they imagined that this far in the future (53 years later), we'd be no closer to protecting the health of our planet than then. 

Trees keep coming down -- here where I live, it seems faster than ever, with more of them than I can keep count of. And as we learned this week, the promise made by Justin Trudeau in 2021 to plant 2 billion trees by 2030, well, it seems to be just another of those unrealistic pronouncements he's turning out to be so good at making. 

The theme of this year's Earth Day suggests that we 'Invest in Our Planet' and sounds very good, until one stops to think who it is that currently IS investing in the planet, and who needs to START investing more in our Earth. 

I admit it, I'm still driving a gasoline-fueled car, and I've even taken a jet within the past year, so I can't claim to be innocent when it comes to contributing to climate change. I suppose all I can continue to do is bear witness to what I see and hope that those 'ethical investments' in my small investment portfolio are indeed going to some cause or start-up that might be helping to make a difference. 

Although wait -- one more suggestion that I've come across -- an idea that makes great sense and is even labour-saving: get rid of your lawn!

Restoration

And looking at that word, restoration, it makes me think: reforestation. 

Exactly what part of my wish is for my Restore the Peace dream. Putting the trees back -- or, to be more truthful, putting in new ones. 

Thinking some more about reforestation, I'm wondering whether the brave souls at Fairy Creek will manage to save those old-growth giants, rather than having them gone, and having to start over again with tiny sprouts that will take hundreds of years to match the Grandfather and others in that grove. 

But yes, it's Earth Day, with its theme of Restore Our Earth, and best news is probably that Joe Biden seems to have shamed Justin Trudeau into making a few more promises (which I sure hope he lives up to this time). Yes, we've heard his song-and-dance before, but maybe with the US holding his feet to the fire, he'll listen. 

Clearly, this is not my happiest Earth Day, as it doesn't seem we're making much in the way of progress. 

Good thing the ferns in the yard are doing the same good job they do every year of coming back into greenness, their own miraculous restoration.

Onward we go, hopefully towards truly Restoring Our Earth before it is too late.   

Countdown...

...to Earth Day, April 22nd. The theme for this year's observance is the all-too-urgent call to "Restore Our Earth". 

Yes, I try to do my small part in looking after the planet. Drying linens on the line means I don't have to use electricity to power the dryer. Instead, it's what I like to think of as backyard wind power. And oh, but I do love the bonus scent of those sheets that have danced in the breeze on a sunny afternoon! 

This year I am hoping for a bigger kind of restoration to begin, one I'm calling Restore the Peace. 

I'm imagining crews of workers employed at what's still called 'Site C' -- only they're not building a mega-dam -- they've abandoned that folly and are working to restore the land as well as the currently-diverted Peace River. 

They're planting trees to replace those that were removed and while they wait for those trees to grow, they've established a 'forest' of wind turbines.

If this sounds like a dream, yes it is. But it's a dream I believe we need to make come true. 

While many of us believe that every day should be Earth Day, the official one is coming soon, so yes, I'm embarking on a countdown and hoping you'll join: Ten, nine, eight, seven...

Happy 50th!

 
What an amazing anniversary! I suspect when Gaylord Nelson 'invented' Earth Day, he had very little notion of just how long the idea would endure.

I'll admit, I didn't do a lot to celebrate today, as Nature looked after watering the garden. And with physical distancing, there wasn't much point in really going anywhere...

One thing I did do was attend a virtual book launch -- for an anthology that, if the poems I heard today were any indication, is bound to be amazing. It's the second in a trilogy of books edited by Yvonne Blomer, past Poet Laureate of Victoria and a fine poet herself.

The first volume, Refugium, put its focus on the Pacific. This one Sweet Water, contains poems for the watersheds. The third will celebrate the Atlantic Ocean.

And of course, while I watched the video presentation, what did I have by my side but my lovely heron-decorated bottle of -- what else -- pure, refreshing water.

Cheers to Earth Day and to poetry!

A poetic Earth Day experience

Yesterday, Earth Day, I celebrated by taking the ferry to Victoria and participating with other writers who were reading poems for the planet. It felt nicely 'Earth Day ish' seeing the Recycling bins on the boat and watching to see how careful people were about looking, then thinking, before tossing their items into the appropriate bins. A small step, but an important one. Awareness.

The event was organized by Victoria's Poet Laureate, Yvonne Blomer, who's approaching the end of her four-year term.

Among her accomplishments is her legacy project, the anthology, Refugium: Poems for the Pacific.

The reading was held in the city's Centennial Square, where life-sized statues of Orcas hold court, so our poems about the ocean fit right in.

Each of the poets read and spoke to the situation facing us. There was even a scientist in our midst, a man doing research at U Vic's Department of Oceanography. He reminded us of Carl Sagan calling our planet "a pale blue dot" and called the image itself the most elaborate-ever selfie.

This time, the Orcas in the square were the only ones I saw, as I didn't see any whales on the ferry rides. But I did get slightly meditative (for lack of a better word) watching the gulls floating on the sea and feeding along the tideline. There was something about the way the surface of the water was constantly moving and shifting that made me consider the absurdity of us thinking we can lay claim to a patch of earth -- even if it (luckily) doesn't shift and move the way water does.

We can't own the planet. If there's any owning to be done, the planet owns us, and we owe -- not only our existence -- but our fealty and respect to it.

If you didn't get to see it, I hope you will track down the Google Doodle from yesterday -- Jane Goodall's life and lessons. She's gone beyond awareness and respect, by living her life in service to the planet, its animals and the environment. May we all learn from her, and act accordingly.