I didn't post something for Earth Day 2025 in April. I keep a list of topics that I intend to address, and fully intended to do an environmental entry on or around April 22, but I kept putting it off to comment on other topics.
I am glad, as I was able to get caught up on my reading, specifically the April edition of National Geographic, and the April-May edition of the Smithsonian Magazine, both which presented me with input and revised reasons to do a post with the label Environment.
And, of course, just last week was the birthday of Rachel Carson, famed environmentalist and author who was born on May 27, 1907 and whom some consider one of the original advocates for the environment.
First, Beeple.
If you haven't heard the term before, fret not. While I was not totally surprised by its use in the Smithsonian article called Born To Bee Wild, I had never seen it used so frequently, had never realized that so many people were proud to describe themselves as such.
In essence, the article details a few of these beeple, as they, generally anonymously, go about their lives studying and advocating for bees. Some do so within the nature of their occupation, perhaps as an employee of a state or federal agency involved in some type of environment related oversight or protection.
But many consider their time spent researching and studying bees, whether in apiaries or in the wild as time spent on a hobby, or perhaps avocation might better explain it, as the best time of their lives.
What was especially inspiring is that these beeple, while recognizing the fact that bee colonies are failing at an alarming rate, were far more upbeat than I would have expected.
Perhaps that is the beauty of getting involved in a topic that one feels strongly about. Doing something about a perceived problem results in meeting and working with people who share your concern but also have a plan to address it. Rather than the hopelessness that many feel about the overall climate catastrophe that seems to be steaming headlong towards us, they are tackling a part of the overall issue, if even only one aspect of the problem.
The work to understand the plight of the bumblebee, so to speak, the process of developing a plan to counter the declines in bee populations, and then engaging, with others, in an attempt to at least lessen the fallout of our "dominion" over nature philosophy, provides a sort of communal gratification.
The phrase "actions speak louder than words" are never so on mark when it is so easy to complain and be depressed at our seemingly gratuitous assault on the natural world.
Getting involved may not immediately stem the tide, but it allows beeple to sleep just a little better at night knowing there are doing what they can.
Speaking of which, the April edition of the National Geographic identified 33 people who are striving to make the world a better place, most of whom I had not heard of before reading the magazine.
As is true with the April-May edition of the Smithsonian, it is far better for you to read the articles than for me to give you a superficial summary.
Suffice to say, I was thoroughly impressed by, in no particular order, the founder of the outdoor clothing company Patagonia, a hugely successful actress who uses her platform to address mental illness, the founder of a well known yogurt company, an actor who uses his platform to advocate for economic opportunity to assist those born in poorer environs to protect the environment while gaining economic independence, an entrepreneur whose company inspires sustainability and ethics in the spice trade, a couple whose building enterprise is finding a novel use for plastic waste, and a woman whose app addresses food waste by linking consumers looking for a good deal with food retailers who throw out unused food.
Again, people who are not satisfied with merely complaining about our shared global problems, but who are doing something to address them, one issue at a time.
And, while a number of them have attained success in their lives first, like most beeple, there are a number of them who fly under the radar in their efforts to make the world a better place.
Make the world a better place.
Such a simple phrase. I have often posited that if it is that simple, heaven for those who are successful in that endeavor, if even only for those they encounter during their life's path, hell for those who choose me first in all their dealings, I wonder what percentage would be allowed entry through the pearly gates.
And, in contemplating such a possibility, how difficult it will be for the most successful people, the most influential people, those who effect the biggest populations, to gain entry to everlasting life.
Is it possible that Jesus's dual quotes, "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven" and "blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth", were referring to just such an eventuality?
Perhaps in attaining great wealth or great renown, one burns through too many chits to be able to make them up through good works afterwards. That in the long run, the world is not a better place despite using ones riches after the fact to improve others lives.
And conversely, that it is much easier for the everyday person to make the world a better place for those in their much smaller circle of influence. A moral not unlike the yearly lesson we are taught at the holidays through "It's a Wonderful Life".
In the meantime, I encourage my readers to engage with magazines such as National Geographic and the Smithsonian, publications which present our shared global challenges, but which also describe ways to address those issues, and the people, beeple or not, who do their best to provide answers and solutions.
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I have posted using the topic Environment many times to date. Here are links to the last four of those posts.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2024/05/national-parks-conservation-and.html
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-monarch-butterfly-and-selflessness.html
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2023/12/countering-rising-co2-levels.html
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2023/11/natures-beauty-and-longevity.html
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