Happy Earth Day!

The Fifty-Third Anniversary.

This is such a beautiful planet. Let’s commit to keep it this way. Let’s protect its diversity, including the oceans, forests, and all the creatures that live there. Let’s reduce our carbon footprint, let’s conserve energy and water. Let’s protect wildlife and ecosystems. Let’s treat every entity as an individual which is a valuable member of the whole, non-humans and humans alike. Let’s commit to mindful living. Let’s promote sustainable agriculture. Let’s focus less on what brings us pleasure at the moment and more on what guarantees a liveable planet for future generations. 

Here are a few resources, facts,  and stimulating articles:

A Carbon Footprint Calculator shows you how well you’re doing (or what areas need improvement).

This opinion piece (Fix Your Diet, Save the Planet) by Peter Singer  (author of Animal Liberation) beautifully summarizes what I’ve been trying to say here all along. Except, I’d be more radical: let’s tax factory farming corporations and stop subsidizing them.

The official Earth Day website has a list of actions one can take that includes the food we eat.

More than 1 billion people participate in Earth Day activities, making it the largest secular civic event in the world.

And I found a hilarious and touching TV special on YouTube, produced twenty years after the original Earth Day: The Earth Day Special. The cast includes eight Oscar winners, eleven Oscar nominees, numerous TV personalities from (then) popular sitcoms such as The Golden Girls, Cheers, and Married With Children. It’s partly dated (the hole in the ozone layer has been fixed) and partly not; we still struggle with plastic and pollution. If you were born after 1990, most of the actors and references to movies and TV shows may mean nothing to you… Please leave a comment!