What can you do for the Earth? Start now
April 22 is Earth Day around the world. Earth Day has a rich history and reminds us that many landmark environmental achievements were made on and around past Earth Days.
In the decades leading up to the first Earth Day in 1970, many North Americans lived in a deteriorating environment filled with toxic and polluted air, water and land. Industry was left relatively unregulated, often producing pollution that harmed wildlife, the natural environment and our fellow human beings. The pollution of some countries’ waterways resulted in rivers catching on fire, as the Cuyahoga River did in 1969.
It was with these environmental calamities in mind that the idea for the first Earth Day began to take form. A U.S. senator, who had long been concerned about the harm being done to the planet, announced the idea for a teachin on college campuses to the U.S. media. He organized the campus teach-ins, and they chose April 22, a weekday falling between college spring break and final exams, to maximize the greatest student participation.
The name Earth Day was created, which immediately sparked national media attention, and caught on across the country. Earth Day inspired 20 million Americans — at the time, 10 per cent of the total population of the United States — to take to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate against the impacts of 150 years of industrial development which had left a growing legacy of serious human health impacts.
As a result of that first Earth Day, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was created and numerous environmental laws were passed with bipartisan support in Congress. These laws have protected millions of men, women and children from disease and death, and have protected hundreds of species from extinction.
Since 1970, Earth Day has continued to grow globally and plays a powerful role in educating and mobilizing millions of people to get involved and organized around the important environmental issues of the day such as climate change.
So, the question that many of us wonder or ask, what can little ol’ me do to help?
The following is from Green Ideas — for a healthier planet and a better future, by Carl Duivenvoorden, a New Brunswick Sustainability consultant. According to him, “Maybe you can’t change the whole world, but you can change your corner of it. And when you change one corner of the world, you actually change the world.”
“Starting is the great separator, writes author John Maxwell. “It separates the doers from the do-nots, the haves from the have-nots, the winners from the whiners, and the successful from the unsuccessful.”
A few of the highlights from the UN IPCC’S latest climate change report, issued recently include: the costs of wind power, solar power and batteries — in other words, the key solutions to climate change — have dropped by 55 to 85 per cent over the past decade.
The target aspired to in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord — no more than 1.5 degrees of warming — is still (barely) within range.
Unfortunately, the report also points out:
• Global emissions remain at record high levels, in spite of much green talk by government and business leaders.
• North American emissions per capita are the highest on the planet.
• If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re on track for more than three degrees of warming, which will bring unprecedented heatwaves, water shortages, storms and sea level rise.
So, as Duivenvoorden points out, it would seem we have all the solutions we need; we just haven’t gotten seriously started with implementing most of them yet. That’s alarming, given that the 1.5-degree target is predicted to slip out of reach by 2025 if we do not start transitioning to zero-emissions, particularly in the transportation and power generation sectors, with wartime urgency.
But starting is the great separator. There are many things we can all do every day to lessen our impact on the one planet we rely on.
The following actions would be a serious attempt to kickstart major progress:
• Commit to making your next vehicle electric. Check out models available in Canada; see which best meets your needs; then go online or call a dealer to place your order (because EVS, like most other vehicles, are suffering from supply-chain issues).
• Take the first steps to generating your own emission-free electricity by visiting www.energyhub and learning about the fundamentals of solar power, the potential in Nova Scotia and assistance programs available. Then, as soon as you’re ready, find local installers and get some quotes (and references).
• Laws and government policies really do matter. So, contact your elected leaders, even if you’ve never done that before, to tell them you think climate change is a key issue to address now.
May every day be Earth Day!