21 April
2006 - Amsterdam, Netherlands — Earth Day (April
22nd) was born in 1970 in the US, at the peak
of an awakening in environmental awareness that
led to the Clean Air Act and a flurry of effective
legislative responses to an ecological crisis.
That's the spirit we need today!
Earth Day 1970 proved to American
politicians that the environment was a populist
issue, that people cared about their planet, and
that elected officials were going to be held accountable
for what they did about protecting the Earth's
future.
Today, we face an environmental
crisis of far greater, planetary proportions.
Climate Chaos is already changing
our world. Within the lifetimes of children being
born today, it may challenge our survival as a
species. Yet the response by governments and industry
to date has been very late, and very little.
"We know so much more about
the science of global warming now than we knew
about the science of leaded gasoline and auto
emissions in 1970 when we wrote the Clean Air
Act," Leon Billings told Christine Larson
in Grist. Billings was staff director for Senator
Ed Muskie, one of the principle architects of
a number of landmark environmental laws in the
US.
So what's different today? Why
is industry able to strong-arm government into
putting the brakes on a response? Why is Exxon
able to demand more research and more certainty
before the world takes action? Why does the US
government's willingness to take action seem to
be shrinking, while the threat is growing? And
why is US inaction slowing down the rest of the
world?
Part of it has to do with all
of us. Governments need to know that it isn't
just a few treehuggers who are worried about a
7 meter sea-level rise, mass extinctions, increasing
occurrences of Katrina-like storms and hundreds
of millions of homeless refugees. Earth Day in
1970 brought truck drivers and house painters
out into the streets. It wasn't just ecologists,
and it wasn't just lefties. It was anyone with
a stake in the future.
Have a look at this clip from
the upcoming film, "An Inconvenient Truth."
In terms of the magnitude of what we're facing,
this says it all:
And if that's not scary enough
for you, perhaps you'd like to see what your home
or your favourite coastal town might look like
in a few decades if we don't act now.
If the Greenland ice sheet collapses,
predictions call for a sea level rise of up to
7 meters. If the Antarctic goes, some models project
12 meters of rise. Have a look at these Google
Maps, based on NASA elevation data, of what a
sea-level rise of 7 meters could look like. Click
on the links to look at the impacts of various
amounts of sea-level rise anywhere in the world.
This Earth Day, we all need
to pledge to do more to get this issue to the
top of the agenda for governments and industries
around the world. Read up, speak out. If our leaders
won't jump, it's up to every one of us to take
positive action to avoid the worst consequences
of global warming. If possible, buy your energy
from a renewable energy supplier. If your politician
doesn't act on global warming - vote for someone
else who will.
And as your gift to your planet
this year, why not adopt just a few of the following
tips for making your life a little greener?
Twelve simple steps to less
energy consumption.
What's needed is an energy revolution
-- one which overturns the ancient fossil fuel
regime and brings forth a new vision. Revolutions
don't come from the top. They come from the people.
The cost of inaction is, quite literally, the
Earth.
