by Stephen J Cocconi© 2020
I happened to be lucky enough to have almost in my backyard, one of the greatest and most beautiful natural cathedrals on earth, Yosemite national park, particularly with you somebody Valley, it’s half dome, cathedral rock and of course the massive and majestic El Capitan. The fact that Earth Day is coming up on its 50th year really makes me want to thank, posthumously, one person, John Muir.
Many historians will acknowledge that John Muir was the father of the environmental movement and that is a title that is rightly deserved and definitely earned. Although the way that American forests have been managed really comes down to Teddy Roosevelt who protected public lands and gave us the phrase “a land of many uses.” But nonetheless, the United States largely has been lucky because it has managed its public lands and its national parks in ways that up to this point we have been able to use for many reasons and in many ways. But most importantly, it is held in trust for its citizens. Until most recently.
We’ve been lucky. And as a result of that, we’ve been complacent. In fact, we’ve been outright indulgent so much so that for the last 50 years, we have taken nature for granted and we have become hyper-consumers. We are destroying via our rampant consumption the very planet we live on. I celebrate the earth as you can call it God’s gift to us. And when in the Bible that said “you have dominion over the Earth”, I think the authors selfishly cheated us. Because I believe that what God really meant was, You have stewardship for the Earth. We are being lousy stewards, at least those of us who we put in power.
So on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, I want to acknowledge that consumerism and the destruction of our own biosphere for economic reasons has brought us to a precipice that has literally caused humanity, especially those who are less fortunate or who have less access to the great capitalistic model to go encroach upon the forest, encroach upon them remaining wild and go hunt a little wild animal near to extinction – the pangolin. Well, like everything in nature, there is always a consequence and it is pretty clear that the SARS2 Virus, which is a part of the Corona virus family of viruses, actually mutated from eating pangolin from the Chinese wet markets. And here we are. How do they connect? It’s simple, actually – as we have destroyed habitat, as we have encroached more and more on the little bits of nature or natural preserves that we have left, and yet our population does so because it’s desperate and growing out of control. We finally crossed the bridge where a viral agent that lived naturally amongst these animals got brought into humans and mutated into this disease.
Now are you one of those people who like to deny things? You know, deny that there is no global climate change? Deny that there is no real environmental devastation. Natural resources deny that somehow a population of 7.8 billion, and by 2025 projected to reach 8 billion, is somehow sustainable as more of us get on top of each other and less of a viable planet earth left for us. If you deny all those things, then you may want to stop reading this article because you’ll just dismiss it anyway. We’re all accountable whether or not we all act responsibly, but here’s the good news. Many of us have acted responsibly, but not all of us have the power to affect large scale change, but the leadership in our world can, and now more than ever, we have this chance to see how our consumerism and our industrial activities actually reverse themselves, when humanity, as a whole, takes a much needed time-out.
The pandemic of the last three months has allowed the skies to become clear in so many major cities in the world. Beijing had clear skies. The Himalayas could be seen for the first time in decades from far off because the smog layers have cleared. The Los Angeles basin is so clear that they can take large, panoramic photos on still days and get sharp, clear resolution because there is little or no smog. Why? Because in each one of these cities, the majority of our automobile traffic, truck traffic, airline traffic and industrial smoke stacks have stopped burning fossil fuels. And this happened literally within weeks throughout the world. There is talk about how a reduction of industrial sewage is allowing downstream waters to clear the toxic elements. And this reduction is happening in a few months! These factors alone are clear evidence that it is absolutely the impact of human beings and human activity that causes not just climate change, but massive pollution in our environment.
What’s important is that we have all taken a global timeout now, hasn’t been imposed by the threat of disease. Yes, but it has been a gift on so many fronts that people could first of all see just how overwhelmed and how much their time is taken up, just trying to earn a living and then also how many distractions are served up to them in trying to counterbalance that overwhelmed with entertainment, consumption and frivolity. All of those are now being shown to us because we are getting our time back and during this time. Ultimately, the most important thing that we can realize is that anything we call normal is a human construct.
There is no normal in the sense of some absolute way of being. There’s only the cluster of adding all human activity and behaviors together and not all those behaviors are necessary. Not all those behaviors are beneficial, at least beneficial to everyone. But importantly they are all changeable and they are all ultimately up and ready for us to look at. People keep saying they want to get back to new normal. Well on this Earth Day, let’s just say, how about when we begin to integrate back in society, we create “new normal” where we work to minimize our consumption, to stop our taking advantage of one another; to try and compete against one another just to serve a global wealth base that most of us never get a chance to share in? We must turn our attention into helping to restore planet earth so it can support us!
And that should be the ultimate gift that we see being given to us on this Earth Day 2020 as we come up on half a century. And as a final caveat, just remember for over a half century, human knowledge has shown us that climate change, overpopulation, and resource depletion, were facts. But still, we have not curtailed ourselves let alone adapted to these realities. Denial has trumped facts. We have known the earth is finite. We have known we have and continue to pollute it. We have willingly disregarded all of those things. Do you really think we can afford to do so from here on?
If the traditional invocation of “wanting to make/leave a better world for our children” is an honest one, then we better stop lying to ourselves and get moving. Because on this course, at this rate, we are leaving them a mess! Which no matter how much volition and effort they muster; biology and climate may leave them no option but to live with the consequences we bequeath to them.
We can do better! Less lying and more truth-telling is the Less is More equation it is time we cipher with. Not profit max and loss min of big business. Economics is a made-up way that humans distribute resources. But biology, geology and physics are where those SOURCES originate. Time for us to stop playing God! Now that would be a way of showing real value for life, instead of putting dollars and cents ahead of every calculation.
So what will you do next? If nothing, just remember, like it or not, deny it or not, YOU are part of the problem! Please, rise to your Brighter Self and contribute to the restoration solution, instead. I thanks in on behalf of all who follow us. Love expressed, is in the behaviors you adopt to take action on behalf of live and the living. You might be the missing piece that makes the whole change possible.