Earth Day message eclipsed
The total solar eclipse on April 8 afforded a rare opportunity for people of all generations to come together to marvel at a spectacle that occurs twice a year around the planet but won't appear in this region again until 2106.
The path of totality, where the moon entirely eclipsed the sun for a moment, passed through parts Atlantic Canada, including swaths of New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador, the northern tip of Cape Breton and the western end of Prince Edward Island.
SCIENTIFIC CELEBRATION
In Mill River, P.E.I., dozens of people gathered at the resort Monday to learn about the science behind the event before donning their eclipse glasses, filtering their camera lenses and projecting their pinholes to experience the passing of the moon between the sun and the earth.
It was a rare moment where a shared experience was largely positive (except, perhaps, for N.L. residents who were confronted with cloud coverage.) It was a celebration of science and our place in the universe.
Which brings us, literally, back to Earth.
This planet, which unlike others in close proximity, is teeming with life that depends on us paying closer attention to the science around caring for it.
WARMING PLANET
According to records going back to 1950, every month between June 2023 and March 2024 has been the world's hottest on record. The calendar year 2023, meanwhile, was the hottest one on record since 1850 — with the planet being 1.68 C hotter warmer than before fossil-fuel burning began in the late 1800s.
David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change, reports this past winter was the warmest ever recorded in P.E.I., the second warmest in New Brunswick and the third warmest on record in Nova Scotia.
While an El Niño weather pattern is influencing some of the most recent mild temperatures, the only and the best thing humans can do to slow down the global warming trend is to cut CO2 emissions.
“Rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are the only way to stop global temperatures increasing,” said Copernicus Climate Change Service deputy director Samantha Burgess.
URGENT MESSAGE
This message is not new, and we may be tired of hearing it, but it is not getting any less urgent.
As we share our impressions of the solar eclipse this week, it seems to be as good a time as any to remind ourselves the beauty of the planet and our ability to enjoy future natural occurrences depends on our own actions.
We should continue to do what we can as individuals to reduce our own carbon footprints (including recycling those solar eclipse glasses through organizations like Astronomers Without Borders). We must also encourage governments to take the steps necessary to cut down on emissions generated by our cities and large industries.
With Earth Day coming up on April 22, it is time to remove our eclipse glasses, get our heads out of the clouds and get focussed on solving human-caused global warming in the places we live.