April 22nd was the 51st annual celebration of Earth Day. I don’t know how many people would have paid respect on that important anniversary but probably not enough. I didn’t acknowledge it either but we all should have.
Ironically, in the times of Covid-19, the world is operating in a state that is unlike anything we have ever seen before. it seems to be the planet earth is coming to our aid. Nature, the sea, the sky, are showing us the way to a possible alliance.
The Earth is finally catching a break. Air pollution has steadily decreased and the Air Quality Index scores for major cities have gotten consistently better. In countries normally clouded with smog, people can see the sky at last.
I could also be reducing my carbon footprint to help out as my doctor is insisting on a radical change in my diet. No red meat or dairy products. I almost gave her the proverbial Donald Trump rhetoric of “You’re fired!” But she was right.
The shift to fish, chicken and vegetables wasn’t all that difficult. Missing out on those BBQed hamburgers was.
The truth is that many of us have a terrible nostalgia to get back to the buzz of activities and excitement we knew pre- pandemic.
Whereas it would be necessary to remain still, listening- and for a long time, if we really wanted to preserve the wonders that the planet is returning to us. At the end of the lockdown our good intentions will end up in the archive of the usual proclamations.
What if in the near future we all work remotely and avoid most travel and unnecessary meetings? So much so that many people hope that the change triggered by Covid-19 persists even after the emergency of living through it.
It is believed by some that the Earth is literally “vibrating less” presently as a result of people not going out and driving like usual.
Unfortunately, the steps being taken so rapidly to contain the coronavirus are nothing more than a Band-Aid for the much larger problem that looms in our future.
Quarantine may slow the spread, but it is by no means a viable solution to the challenges posed by rapid climate change on Earth.
Even though the barons of Oil Companies and other corporate plunderers scoff at the thought of earth day, all the more reason for its purpose to be high-profile. In fact, that’s why Earth Day exists and persists — to celebrate and extend our fighting spirit against such offenders.
Many threats to the fragile, life-sustaining natural resources of Planet Earth are readily apparent — oil spills, dirty air, clearcutting, fish kills, etc. But very few of us can comprehend an equally devastating new threat called “financial innovation.”
This tool has opened the door for the financial manipulators that Wall Street “ethicists” call innovators. They’ve been quietly devising razzle-dazzle schemes to allow rich global investors to play in the commodity of water. So, now we have water futures contracts, “water grabbing” ventures, hedging schemes and other financialization that hustles to maneuver the monetary value of this essential resource.
Ominous groups are buying up water rights in low-income farming communities and then literally moving the “commodity” to rich suburban developments that will pay more.
These profiteers call water peddling “the biggest emerging market on Earth – a trillion-dollar market opportunity.” The crise of “drought” will provide “an unprecedented period of investment opportunity for the water industry, allowing investors to “thrive and prosper.”
There needs to be public discussion and pushback in every neighbourhood: Is access to an affordable supply of clean water to be a human right for all or to line the pockets of rich speculators?
Earth Day celebrants definitely need to be up in arms, as it threatens a basic resource: water. Everyone knows that water literally is covering 71% of our planet, making up 60% of our own bodies and requiring a constant intake by all of us – or we will quickly die. Potable H2O cannot allowed to be market priced like oil or gold.
Next Earth Day, think about changes that are taking place. Progress begins with all of us.
