So, another Earth Day, one year past the 50th anniversary of its inception, and I guess the big question might be, has it mattered? Has the, now global recognition that we are stewards of Earth, not just another species trying to survive, made a difference in how we treat our home?
I believe that the answer to that question is not clear cut, but as is typical with any complicated issue, a mixture of yes and no, and might also be split between how we first reacted to the problems we were causing to the environment, and how we are reacting today.
They say that admitting a problem is the biggest hurdle to solving it whether that problem be personal or collective. But there is a second part to that equation, one of persistence. How often do we hear of and experience the first flush of success in addressing a problem or addiction, followed in time, by a return to the allure of the immediate gratification that marks any dependence?
I see a similar pattern in our global reaction to the realization that we were poisoning our planet. Before beginning this post, I reviewed the posts I have already created within my blog, finding that I have 20 such posts listed under the title Environment. The one for which I have provided a link is from September 2019, and details a number of environmental success stories. Sadly, far too many of these accomplishments occurred in the initial blush of efforts to combat our negative influences on the environment.
This is not to say that more recent efforts have not also achieved some successes. But the simple fact that the last administration was cheered by so many Americans for removing us from the Paris Agreement, demonstrates that we have taken a step backwards from the days when addressing air and water pollution, removing lead from our paint and car emissions, and cleaning up our toxic waste dumps, was a bipartisan political effort, even if actively fought by certain industries. Now, just uttering the phrase climate change means certain removal from the protection of the political boss from
Mar-a-Lago.
Fortunately, environmental awareness has penetrated the structures of our lives, social, business and political, so that even though we have and continue to experience some backlash to placing the health of our planet (and therefore our own) at least on par with the profit motive, there is cause to celebrate the achievements of the environmental movement in the last 5 decades.
For instance, last Friday Nora and I attended a trail opening in our neighborhood. This particular trail filled a gap in the Schuylkill River trail that will eventually stretch from Philadelphia to the headwaters of the river in Schuylkill County, about 140 miles in total. Imagine that, a project that involves federal, state, county, local and private monies and volunteers to provide a walking and biking trail for public use. The simple fact that this type of trail was conceived and created over the course of decades is certain proof of the reach and popularity of environmental awareness.
Add to this type of outdoor public area, the 60 plus national parks, and tens of thousands of state and local parks and recreation areas, not to mention the multitude of paid workers and volunteers who maintain these outdoor sites, and it is easy to conclude that Americans are all in on the idea that enjoying the natural world is not only beneficial, but a necessary ingredient to a happy, well balanced life.
After the majority of human existence which required us to be outside as part of our daily drive to survive, we are now returning to the outside world for pleasure, to renew our bodies and souls. And, in so desiring this form of enjoyment, we have become reacquainted with the process of living in harmony with nature. With the concept that for us to thrive, we need to manage how we use our resources, need to be cognizant that tomorrow's open land, bountiful game and plants, will only be there if we employ sustainable methods of harvesting the animals and plants on land and in the ocean.
In essence, we are relearning the techniques used by the original inhabitants of the Americas in conjunction with the intermixing of the new technologies that enable us to produce more food on less land.
And so, in these days when our global need for energy continues to spiral up, while our finite sources of energy become the subject of war and conflict, drill baby drill is the worst solution, the solution which denies this growing realization of how to interact with the natural world. It is a simplistic and short term response to a complex and long term challenge, a response that fails to learn from all the other times in the past 50 years when a shortage of refined fossil fuels inspired the very same reaction, rather than a redoubling of efforts to seek energy sources that worked in conjunction with the planet, rather than as a source of destruction.
It all reminds me of a story I wrote in May, 2011, the link for which I have provided below.
Still, and despite the negative tone of the above story, it is my sincere hope that in 100 years, our progeny will mark this time as indicative of the sea change that saved our planet from the harmful effects of our mismanagement of resources and the profit now attitude of the most greedy among us, a change led by a renaissance associated with the realization that only by working with nature will humanity continue to thrive. A full circle, one might say, from the days when surviving the vagaries of nature progressed through the various inventions which enabled us to control nature until the hopefully full understanding that it is not dominion but cooperation and harmony that must describe our relationship with the environment.
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