Earth Day
Fifty years ago?
Yesterday, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we woke up to the cleanest air in, well, fifty years.
It’s sad that the COVID19 has sequestered most of us, but clean air is a positive byproduct. Millions of cars are not on the roads and the air is cleaner than it’s been in decades, maybe centuries.
Residents of some cities are able to see distant natural landmarks for the first time in their lives. An example: the Himalayas are visible from New Delhi. Los Angeles residents can see sky, mountains and buildings from miles away.
Our country and our planet have come a long way in fifty years. Cars and manufacturing plants are more fuel efficient and less polluting. Recycling is more the rule than the exception. Yet we have so much further to go. Global warming is real and the earth’s temperature is rising, leading to sea level rises and increasingly severe weather conditions, among other things.
Big businesses with short-sighted goals, enabled by an ignorant, heartless U. S. President, continue to react slowly to taking measures which would help the planet.
Another interesting result of the quarantine is a reduction in noise pollution. The constant rumble of weekday traffic has been reduced to a hum resembling an early Sunday morning. And I bet the signature New York sound of honking horns is down to a few toots.
And a little side note about another historical event from fifty years ago this week ... planet Earth welcomed back the Apollo 13 astronauts as they safely returned from their aborted moon mission.
So as we are still stuck in our homes this week, I’d suggest that we take a moment, or an hour, to look at the blossoming spring flowers and breathe in the newfound clean air. We have time to think about things right now and I think we should think about doing what we can to keep ourselves and our planet healthy.
Yesterday, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we woke up to the cleanest air in, well, fifty years.
It’s sad that the COVID19 has sequestered most of us, but clean air is a positive byproduct. Millions of cars are not on the roads and the air is cleaner than it’s been in decades, maybe centuries.
Residents of some cities are able to see distant natural landmarks for the first time in their lives. An example: the Himalayas are visible from New Delhi. Los Angeles residents can see sky, mountains and buildings from miles away.
Our country and our planet have come a long way in fifty years. Cars and manufacturing plants are more fuel efficient and less polluting. Recycling is more the rule than the exception. Yet we have so much further to go. Global warming is real and the earth’s temperature is rising, leading to sea level rises and increasingly severe weather conditions, among other things.
Big businesses with short-sighted goals, enabled by an ignorant, heartless U. S. President, continue to react slowly to taking measures which would help the planet.
Another interesting result of the quarantine is a reduction in noise pollution. The constant rumble of weekday traffic has been reduced to a hum resembling an early Sunday morning. And I bet the signature New York sound of honking horns is down to a few toots.
And a little side note about another historical event from fifty years ago this week ... planet Earth welcomed back the Apollo 13 astronauts as they safely returned from their aborted moon mission.
So as we are still stuck in our homes this week, I’d suggest that we take a moment, or an hour, to look at the blossoming spring flowers and breathe in the newfound clean air. We have time to think about things right now and I think we should think about doing what we can to keep ourselves and our planet healthy.
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