Earth Day 2022: Temperatures Rising
Since 1970, Earth Day has become a global event to recognize and reflect on all manner of environmental issues.
I believe Earth Day is a good opportunity to assess, recommit, and adjust our awareness and efforts to live in a “symbiotic” relationship with our host planet.
For this Earth-Day Weekend, millions of people worldwide will likely do one of the following:
- Get outdoors – from waterfronts to wooded areas – to enjoy the natural world, to honor it, to bathe in it, to find solitude, and to be re-energized
- Take some personal action, perhaps planting a tree, removing plastics and other litter
- Donating to a myriad of organizations that promise to protect everything from coral reefs to polar bears and sea turtles
- Joining demonstrations and protests declaring their concern that we are not doing enough to be good caretakers of “Mother Earth” also referred to as “Spaceship Earth” and “Gaia” – perhaps advocating for better policies at a governmental level
- Considering what this warming planet means for you, your family, and friends in terms of protecting yourselves from the effects of a rapidly changing world.
- Nothing. The majority of the planet’s eight billion inhabitants will do nothing relevant for Earth Day. (Of course, the reason may be entirely understandable such as financial hardship or simply coping with the challenges of life and subsistence — and for some, the terrible Russian invasion of Ukraine.)
It’s tempting to say “Happy Earth Day” but honestly, that’s not my feeling. Sure, we want to have hope and find some positive action that will inspire us, but let’s not be naive or sanguine. The last 52 years has shown that most of the efforts to stave off environmental disaster were palliatives at best, making us feel better, without resolving the underlying problem.
We face a serious unprecedented challenge to live in harmony with our environment, particularly with the problem described as global warming. We are at a tipping point.
As my readers know I break the “climate change problem” into three separate aspects, since each of them requires entirely different “solutions.” I recommend SUSTAINABILITY, RESILIENCY, and ADAPTATION.
Sustainability covers many issues, but with regard to the warming world, the need to produce energy without adding to the warming greenhouse effect caused by burning fossil fuels.
Resiliency is the challenge to prepare for the extreme weather events now in the headlines from around the world: record rainfall, rising seas, wildfires, high heat, and drought.
Adaptation is the need to plan now for unavoidable challenges that lie ahead. First and foremost is rising sea level, now assured due to the excess heat already stored in the sea. The giant ice sheets and glaciers on Antarctica and Greenland are melting faster and faster. A warming world will have less ice on land and thus higher sea level, changing coastlines in the 140 nations with an ocean boundary. What surprises most people is to learn that sea level will continue to rise for centuries, even with efforts now being discussed to try to stop the warming. We are now looking at the prospect of a few meters – more than ten feet – higher sea level, possibly in the next hundred years. The global effects of that kind of sea level rise are hard to fathom…excuse the pun.
Being positive, Earth Day is a good opportunity to consider the impact all this may have on you, your family, and your communities. In addition to the bulleted actions listed above, there is one more action that Earth Day might motivate you to do. Educate Others. If you have read my book, Moving to Higher Ground: Rising Sea Level and the Path Forward – published exactly one year ago – you know that getting educated and teaching others the surprising reality of rising seas and climate change is my highest recommendation. Nothing will change until there is widespread understanding of the problem and the kind of actions that will really make a difference.
Earth Day’s greatest contribution has been and continues to be as a means to shine the spotlight on the environmental challenges we face and the actions we can take.