Happy Earth Day fellow Earthlings!
Earth Day is celebrated yearly on April 22 (and the whole week prior) as a show of support for environmental issues and to promote protecting our planet.
Earth Day began in 1970 and the issues discussed since have been anything from pollution on the planet, the health of our waters and of the air, global warning, climate change, and more...
Earth Day 2023’s theme is “Invest in Our Planet”.
How appropriate.
Just recently I watched an old George Carlin comedy act on the folks wanting to protect our planet, and he jokes how those people are just selfish and only want to live in a beautiful place themselves but they don’t actually care about the planet. And, that the planet doesn’t need us to protect it – it can and will heal itself on its own, millennials after we’re all gone. Then he proceeds to say that if it’s true that plastic doesn’t decompose, and that eventually we’ll all have plastic within us, maybe that was the Earth’s master plan, to have humans, and with time, have them invent and produce plastics from the very ingredients of the Earth, just for Earth's desire, and then rid of us, humans.
All silliness, of course, it was a comedy act to poke fun at us humans and how irresponsible we are toward our planet.
The reality is, plastic really is a problem, especially if we look at the overwhelming accumulation in landfills and ocean floors (and now beaches too).
To the right is a video of the amazing work of cleaning a beach in Guatemala by 4ocean crew.
Another amazing organization that does similar work is The Ocean Cleanup.
You can learn more about these two by clicking on the links to their Twitter accounts.
Avoiding the issue as it’s not part of the earth’s area where we live, is just not being responsible, for us and future generations (not to mention all the species in the oceans).
Every single time you use some plastic object, especially a single-use plastic product and the convenience of carrying your liquids or chunk of food, (and depending on the type of plastic), that very single-use plastic product will just be tossed away and be part of the earth for literally thousands of years – it just does not get decomposed easily nor does it biodegrade with time.
A similar thorny problem is now arousing with accumulated debris, this time in space. The parallels of the junk we throw in landfills and oceans is also what is happening with debris circling our planet.
Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris, from Wikipedia) is a serious problem.
The “New Space" era, happening currently, with all the new innovations of the space industry, mainly satellites and their launch vehicles, and all the “leftovers” from previous launches, which have either broken up, no longer in use, basically just defunct human-made objects in LEO (Low Earth Orbit), is what is causing this space debris – and will just worsen in the next few years.
From NASA’s website:
LEO is an orbital space junk yard. There are millions of pieces of space junk flying in LEO. Most orbital debris comprises human-generated objects, such as pieces of space craft, tiny flecks of paint from a spacecraft, parts of rockets, satellites that are no longer working, or explosions of objects in orbit flying around in space at high speeds.
Most “space junk” is moving very fast and can reach speeds of 18,000 miles per hour, almost seven times faster than a bullet. Due to the rate of speed and volume of debris in LEO, current and future space-based services, explorations, and operations pose a safety risk to people and property in space and on Earth.
Do we ever learn from our mistakes?
Individually, we can't drastically change the world, but each of us can make a difference. Here's a post a shared a few years ago that perfectly explains that (except now we're 8+ Billion people in the world...).
As a Montrealer, I’m proud of my city for the recent ban of single-use plastics and polystyrene (no. 6), and not allowing plastic bags. It’s certainly a start!
As I travel a lot in the US, I do notice a big difference between the states; Colorado having more eco-friendly items in their cafes and restaurants, including paper straws. Places like Texas, not as environment conscious, as an example, offering straws with every drink like they were candies!
To end, here are beautiful words I just heard by former NASA astronaut Jeff Hoffman: his Overview Effect, more importantly, his powerful message:
“You’re out there in a spacecraft, you look through the window and realize that on the other side of the window is a vacuum. And most of the Universe is like that; it’s totally hostile to life. We never sense that here on Earth. I mean, the Earth is friendly to life. But we take it for granted. But you go out there and you’re in the middle of this hostile environment, which is almost all of the Universe and then you look down at our planet, and truly appreciate, in a visceral sense, emotionally, how our planet has given birth to life and protects life, and in return, we better protect or planet because right now, it’s all we’ve got!”
Spaceship Earth is the only place we’ve got. You and I individually cannot change the world, but collectively, we really can all make a difference!
Happy Earth Day [every day!]!
Comments