Jennifer Allen
By Jennifer Allen
“Our population and our use of the finite resources of planet
Earth are growing exponentially, along with our
ability to change the environment for good or ill.”
– Stephen Hawking
April has finally arrived. Many of us will experience warmer temperatures, the stunning colours everywhere as flowers and trees come into full bloom, and the rain showers that some see as a blessing… others as a curse. It’s also the month where we tend to think about a fresh start to things or working hard to preserve precious things we already have. The first sign of the Gregorian Zodiac, Aries and the Hindu Zodiac, Me?a are both in April. Many celebrations of revolution and independence from Guinea to Portugal are present. April 1st is a day most noted for practical jokes and pranks, but as at one point celebrated as New Year’s Day in parts of Europe. Ironically some countries in the Far East still celebrate the New Year in April as opposed to January.
More notable in April are the various days relating to the Earth and either celebrating her beauty or finding ways to keep it from fading. Observances such as Arbor Day and Earth Day remind us that if we don’t work to save the planet we have… it’s not like we can just go to another one (not yet anyways).
I’ll admit that I had no flipping idea what Arbor Day was until it was highlighted in (you guessed it) a Charlie Brown Special in the mid 70’s. The thought of planting various plants on Charlie Brown’s baseball field, including the big tree on the pitcher’s mound still makes me grin. Even more so is the fact that at the end the game is cancelled by rain. Still… it did make me and others curious why Charles Schultz would go to the trouble of making one of his many beloved animated Classics about such a lesser known holiday. None of his bios mention a great fondness for the environment, but I guess he could have been influenced from an era where we saw plenty of advertisements of Smokey the Bear telling us that only we can prevent forest fires, and Iron Eyes Cody crying on our TV screens while surrounded with loose trash as we were told to “Keep America Beautiful.”
Being one of those kids born in the early 1970’s, I grew up pretty much thrown feet first in a wild roller coaster ride of both extreme excess and abstinence. The late 70’s and most of the 80’s was all about either having more of just about everything imaginable, or having almost nothing. It wasn’t until the 90’s that most of the world figured out that we cannot continue with either complete gluttony or scarcity and must instead move into a realm of temperance. Communism all but ended in Europe and Russia. Major cuts in spending were made in multiple countries around the world. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party was created. We even had the rise of wide-spread internet and the subsequent fears that technology would overwhelm us (ala The Matrix or Terminator’s Skynet).
Getting back to Earth’s preservation, I was surprised to learn that Arbor Day has been around since 1872 and Earth Day since 1970. Even more eye-opening is to hear that one of our first US Presidents in the 20th Century, Theodore Roosevelt, was a strict naturalist. There’s a lot to be said when the same man who told us to “speak softly and carry a big stick” also spoke of preserving nature by saying, “Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.”
In the 21st century for much of the Western world, it seems that even with teachings from the likes of Al Gore, Vandana Shiva and Sir David Attenborough, many still haven’t quite accepted a more “green” way of life. Maybe it’s due to the incorrigible nature or human beings to resist change. Maybe some have ignored it thinking it just doesn’t affect him or her personally. Maybe some still have that attitude that once trash is placed in a bin or worse, tossed on the ground it’s “no longer my problem.”
But just how bad is it getting? Actually the results may surprise you.
According to a study done by the World Economic Forum, the continent that wastes the most food is North America with Europe a very close second. South Asia and Africa actually waste the least amount of food. Who dumps the most plastic back into our environment? The US is still #1 but Far East countries like China and the Philippines are quickly climbing to be #2. Electronic waste or eWaste? Well some US states have started mandatory programs to recycle these but it’s not enough considering that more than 40 million electronic devices in the US alone become obsolete after only 1 year of use.
At this point you may be picturing in your head all those pictures of various cities in South Asia with dirty rivers and scavengers picking through piles and piles of discarded trash. While yes many areas do still have problems with sanitation and landfills, the situation could be much, much worse. Often old items were traded to local Bartanwallahs, Raddiwallahs or Kabadiwallahs and “hand-me-downs” are simply a way of life for many families instead of tossing goods away. In 2000, a solid waste policy was put in place to regulate India’s municipality waste management with rules on everything from littering to requiring cities to provide the means for citizens to properly recycle. While this has been underway for some time now, many smaller towns and poorer areas are still behind the times at no fault of their own.
While the whole of Europe has their own share of waste issues, Oslo, Norway has made it a mission to take some of the garbage from neighboring countries like England, Finland and even the US and turn it into fuel. Their philosophy is that by using the waste as fuel they effectively kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. First it reduces landfills and controls waste, and it also reduces the overall need to use fossil fuels for energy.
How will you celebrate Earth Day or Arbor Day this April? Well first think about how simply planting one tree or tossing your used water bottle into a nearby recycle bin can help save our precious world. Then think about 10 or 100 or 1000 people doing the exact same thing. Before you know it, we could avoid the dystopian future of WALL-E or Mad Max and save this beautiful planet for just that much longer for our children, grandchildren and beyond.
