The Earth is scarred. It is cut, burned, poisoned and ravaged. But we mustn’t ever believe that it is beyond repair.
Tomorrow (April 22) is Earth Day, an occasion when we should consider our planet and our environment within it. And though we may wish simply for the Earth to get well soon, it is up to any of us or all of us to be part of that recovery.
There are a number of ways to observe Earth Day. Nanaimo and Area Land Trust has organized a Wild Foods Festival and Earth Day celebration at Bowen Park on Saturday to highlight the availability of local edibles. Uplands Park Elementary School is holding a plastic shopping bag drive. But Earth Day can be compatible with our lives in many other ways, too, depending only on the limitations of our imaginations. There are streams to clean, trees to plant, petitions to sign, causes to champion. Or there are countless opportunities just to get outside and enjoy the great outdoors and appreciate the Earth, and it’s so close that we might not even have to take the car.
Or maybe Earth Day isn’t really about celebrating. It’s a date on the calendar when we can take stock, so to speak, and look back on the past 12 months, and think about what we did to harm or heal the Earth, and whether we could have done more, and whether we wish to do more.
We’re not sure if Canadians are ready or willing to take a leap toward a future free of fossil fuels. Sometimes it seems we prefer the leap of faith that the harm we’re doing here on Earth isn’t irreversible.
So perhaps we’ll have to be satisfied with small steps. Small steps might be enough or they might not be, but they can and do make the world a better place, and that needs to be an outcome of this Earth Day and the ones that come after.
Our planet isn’t beyond repair, rather, it’s beyond compare. And we need it to be that way forever.