Happy 50th Birthday, Earth Day. For a great calm 90 minutes go to the International Space Station live view and enjoy a world-wide tour of our planet. Put on some calming music and just watch the world go by.
While you are enjoying this break for 5 minutes or the whole around the world trip, simply rest.
When I was a teenager the Crying Indian commercial was regularly running. The award-winning ad for earth-care had everyone talking. Many paid attention. The new environmental protections had begun to show results. The water was becoming cleaner and the air was becoming clearer. My school had classes on the environment and contests on recycling, reusing, and renewing. We learned to turn out lights, turn off the water when we brushed our teeth, and put trash in trash cans instead of throwing things out wherever we were (yes, kids, that was a real thing we had to learn and yes, I know, we ought to be ashamed).
On this 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, I am heartened by how many people are noticing the natural world being reclaimed. I think there are two reasons. One is we have been unnaturally slowed down due to our forced stillness, our stay-at-home orders. The other is due to our actual human absence. Both have had the same result.
We are seeing things differently because we are “stopping to smell the roses,” and because the “roses” are actually visible and audible and more clearly present wherever our eyes look and our ears hear. At my own home, air pollution has made a drastic decrease, visibly non-existent where a month ago I could literally sweep black dust off the ledges of my porch and chairs.
Things will not always be shut down as they are now. Therefore, we know that our effect upon the world will move toward our previous impact levels when we start up. Now is the time to consider how each of us can continue to minimize our negative impact on the earth. What changes has our forced stillness created in you that you can continue after the bans are lifted?
Whether you choose to advocate for work-from-home policies or see the benefits of home-cooked meals, together we can make a difference. Mother Nature has given a look at what can be if we take climate change and life change to heart. Let us remember we are only stewards for:
bevfriedlander 