Earth, first?

Today's posting will be short and sort'a sweet and sort'a not so. I’m wishing there was a more positive way to look at a couple of factors listed below, but so far I’ve not figured one out.

Earth, Image Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

First, please consider the graphics at this link. (The planetary boundaries concept presents a set of nine planetary boundaries within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come.) If you understand the concept of a trends extended scenario, it’s fairly easy to see we’re headed in a very wrong direction.

Second, please realize that Limits to Growth was published fifty years ago last year. For the most part, it’s proven to be dismayingly accurate.

Third, last year the book Earth for All was published. An executive summary can be found here. It pretty much picks up where Limits left off. We have two choices as a species and are highly probable to not like the consequences, and may not survive, if we choose wrong and continue business as usual, (Paris Agreement ring a bell?).

On the one hand, I’ll be damned if I can figure out what it would take for world powers to actually address existential issues since, excepting ozone, our track record isn’t great. On the other hand the future isn’t some thing that awaits US, it’s something each of US creates with every one of our daily actions, every single day. In that case, since next month there’s a major effort to get conversations going about how to create a worldwide sustainable economy, I’m going to participate in at least some of those conversations. The Hobson’s Choice is, if I don’t, I forfeit the future to those who fail to value it.

Here’s an invitation to those conversations. Please join US at Systems change, not climate change.

Earth Day

By Jane Yolen

I am the Earth

And the Earth is me.

Each blade of grass,

Each honey tree,

Each bit of mud,

And stick and stone

Is blood and muscle,

Skin and bone.

And just as I

Need every bit

Of me to make

My body fit,

So Earth needs

Grass and stone and tree

And things that grow here

Naturally.

That’s why we

Celebrate this day.

That’s why across

The world we say:

As long as life,

As dear, as free,

I am the Earth

And the Earth is me. 

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