by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator
Today is Earth Day, the 49th anniversary of the holiday designed to honor Mother Earth that was first celebrated in 1970 just as the world was coming to grips with the new realities that were brought forward during the social turbulence of the 1960's. As this Earth Day comes around there seems to be a new urgency fomenting on the subject of climate change, and elements of the United States Congress are seriously putting forth a package of environmental proposals that is being referred to as a "Green New Deal."
This week there have been stories in the news about a survey showing that a majority of Americans want their children to be taught about climate change in schools - and a new report that some of Hawaii's beaches are at risk from rising ocean levels. New threats are being found in water supplies, and species of plants and animals continue to disappear - forever. As the years slip by, the cumulative harm that mankind inflicts on the Earth grows and becomes harder and harder to control - and it becomes more and more obvious that we are destroying the only home we have.
David Leonhardt, a columnist for the New York Daily News, used the following quote this morning in the on-line edition of that newspaper. He took it from Nathaniel Rich's new book, Losing Earth. The quote is the final paragraph of the book:
"Everything is changing about the natural world and everything must change about the way we conduct our lives. It is easy to complain that the problem is too vast, and each of us is too small. But there is one thing that each of us can do ourselves, in our homes, at our own pace - something easier than taking out the recycling or turning down the thermostat, and something more valuable. We can call the threats to our future what they are. We can call the villains villains, the heroes heroes, the victims victims, and ourselves complicit. We can realize that all this talk about the fate of Earth has nothing to do with the planet's tolerance for higher temperatures and everything to do with our species' tolerance for self-delusion. And we can understand that when we speak about things like fuel-efficiency standards or gasoline taxes or methane flaring, we are speaking about nothing less than all we love and all we are."
All we love - and all we are. That's fairly damned inclusive, and fairly damned damning!
Today's poetry selection is "Earth Day" by Jane Yolen. It's a simple verse with an important message. Read, heed, and then go outdoors and clean up a patch of the environment - or plant something!
Happy Earth Day!
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 a 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 dear, as free
I am the Earth
And the Earth is me.
Poetry Appreciator
Today is Earth Day, the 49th anniversary of the holiday designed to honor Mother Earth that was first celebrated in 1970 just as the world was coming to grips with the new realities that were brought forward during the social turbulence of the 1960's. As this Earth Day comes around there seems to be a new urgency fomenting on the subject of climate change, and elements of the United States Congress are seriously putting forth a package of environmental proposals that is being referred to as a "Green New Deal."
This week there have been stories in the news about a survey showing that a majority of Americans want their children to be taught about climate change in schools - and a new report that some of Hawaii's beaches are at risk from rising ocean levels. New threats are being found in water supplies, and species of plants and animals continue to disappear - forever. As the years slip by, the cumulative harm that mankind inflicts on the Earth grows and becomes harder and harder to control - and it becomes more and more obvious that we are destroying the only home we have.
David Leonhardt, a columnist for the New York Daily News, used the following quote this morning in the on-line edition of that newspaper. He took it from Nathaniel Rich's new book, Losing Earth. The quote is the final paragraph of the book:
"Everything is changing about the natural world and everything must change about the way we conduct our lives. It is easy to complain that the problem is too vast, and each of us is too small. But there is one thing that each of us can do ourselves, in our homes, at our own pace - something easier than taking out the recycling or turning down the thermostat, and something more valuable. We can call the threats to our future what they are. We can call the villains villains, the heroes heroes, the victims victims, and ourselves complicit. We can realize that all this talk about the fate of Earth has nothing to do with the planet's tolerance for higher temperatures and everything to do with our species' tolerance for self-delusion. And we can understand that when we speak about things like fuel-efficiency standards or gasoline taxes or methane flaring, we are speaking about nothing less than all we love and all we are."
All we love - and all we are. That's fairly damned inclusive, and fairly damned damning!
Today's poetry selection is "Earth Day" by Jane Yolen. It's a simple verse with an important message. Read, heed, and then go outdoors and clean up a patch of the environment - or plant something!
Happy Earth Day!
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 a 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 dear, as free
I am the Earth
And the Earth is me.
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