Image by Kathrine Jølle Wathne from Pixabay
HAPPY EARTH DAY!
Hopeful Earth Day
In thinking about Earth Day this year, I really want to think about the positives. Though we have a lot to be worried about- climate change, melting ice caps, sea level rise, feeding our growing population. There are many people working towards a more sustainable future but will it be enough? Will it be in time? I do have hope.
Hope in Action
I recently read about farmers moving to regenerative agriculture and about families putting their ranchers into land trusts. That gives me hope. I heard about a new type of concrete that allows water to flow through, helping to replenish aquifers and about organic based materials that could replace plastics. That gives me hope. I see animal bridges and connected habitats being established. That gives me hope.
Hopeful Developments
I just watched a YouTube video about the Great Green Wall on the continent of Africa where traditional planting practices, that had been lost, are making a comeback and green is coming back to the Sahel. They are hoping to provide a shield against the Sahara desert creeping south. You can check it out here. Looking to nature for solutions is a good idea. New ideas or old, we have to keep moving toward sustainability. Our lives depend on it. The answer won’t be one big solution, but many smaller ones in lots of places and by many different methods and many different people. For the solutions to work, people have to buy into the validity of the problem and the value of the solutions.
Children Are Our Hope
But before all those things happen, we have love and appreciate the Earth enough to change our ways. We have to protect what is still left. For our future, we better instill in our children a love and appreciation for what the Earth provides. We have to make a concerted effort to make sure children spend time outdoors and learn about all nature has to offer. Their future depends on it, but right now, even more importantly, they need it for their own enjoyment and learning. Every day should be Earth Day.
But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.
Rachel Carson
I hope you all have a happy Earth Day today. Thank you for reading. For children’s books to celebrate Earth Day or just appreciate our planet any day, check out the next post.