Earth

Earth Day Essay

I’m in my backyard haven. The chipmunks, squirrels, finches, and chickadees twitter and scamper about. In the wake of the violence humans continue to inflict on one another and the Earth, and in honor of Earth Day, I’m inspired to speak out. We face the greatest challenge we’ve ever faced. We are all part of the tree of life. Humans, like other creatures are like the leaves, sitting on many different branches, yet dependent on the very same trunk. Chief Seattle’s wisdom comes to us in the phrase “The Earth doesn’t belong to us. We belong to the Earth.” This is difficult for those of us raised on the cornflakes of human supremacy to swallow, yet unless we digest this essential message we doom ourselves to extinction. Each day newcomers are added to the endangered species list. The absence of the human species on the list is a glaring statement of our failure to connect the dots and acknowledge the interdependence of all life. A part of our population, fueled by ignorance and greed, is sawing through our trunk. Each being on Earth depends on clean water, clean air, and healthy topsoil. It’s time to realize that our most threatening enemy is our ignorance. Our delusion, that we are somehow separate from the natural world and each other, is what we must annihilate! We can no longer try to make a particular part of our planet or population the scapegoat. The notion that we can get rid of all our problems by removing or imprisoning the part of our population that makes visible the problem is as erroneous as thinking you can get rid of measles and stop the disease from spreading by putting on makeup. Our planet is ill and reaching critical condition. Humans are engaged in matricide. As our newspapers are glutted with blurbs that tabulate the effects of human pollution, we seem to be paralyzed. We haven’t yet realized that instead of fighting and competing with each other, we can pool our talents, creativity and courage into a cooperative re-visioning of...