4-22-2024 4:07am

April 22: Earth Day Celebrates Our Mother--Nature

Lesley Misko Editor

“Single Use” acrylic on canvas, 2’x5’ by Susan Biebuyck

by Jane Stahl

I’m that old. I remember the first Earth Day in 1970 initiated by a Democratic senator from Wisconsin Gaylor Nelson who had long been concerned about the environment.

Nelson witnessed an oil spill that had sent millions of gallons onto the southern California coast in 1969. After touring the site, he and others including activist Denis Hayes created events to bring awareness to our planet’s looming environmental crisis. One of those events was attended by a group of students in my English classes at Northglenn High School where I was teaching. One young man’s face is seared into memory.

I have never forgotten the impact the event had on my students that year. That 16-year-old recalled predictions about the future, a future we are now witnessing: the warming of the planet which destroys wildlife, bleaches coral, thaws icebergs, and creates extreme flooding and fires around the world, for example.

But years before, as a high school student myself, I recall my father urging me to read Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring. My dad was an avid fisherman and hunter; he inspired in me a love of nature and all living things--dogs in particular. During our summer vacations, Dad typically led me and my brother on underwater explorations of the freshwater lakes in Massachusetts as we swam to hunt for blueberries on the small islands in the middle of those lakes.

Carson wrote about the pesticide DDT and its effects on the food chain and raised awareness about nature’s delicate balance. My dad wasn’t frightened of anything, but the intensity of his concern after reading Carson’s book made me realize that more attention should be paid to the harm that “civilization” was inflicting on the 8 billion humans and trillions of other organisms that call Earth their home.

And I am haunted today by the one-word whispered suggestion given in the film The Graduate to the young man looking for a successful career; the word was “Plastics.” In witnessing all the many forms of plastic that has creeped into our existence since the film’s release, I’ve come to share the fears my father and my student instilled in me decades ago. And, in fact, this year’s Earth Day is focusing on the threat that plastics—especially single-use plastic products--pose to our environment.

"500 Years, drawing by Susan Biebuyck

I recall years ago when my elementary school-aged son—now 40+--came home and placed bins for the family to use insisting that we separate plastic from biodegradable trash. In my own campaign to save the planet, I gifted my adult children with reusable grocery bags as Christmas gifts several seasons ago and, with a nod to my artist friend Susan Biebuyck, I take greater care to avoid purchasing any item that has no permanent use but will soon become landfill material and, as my own quest, to honor the lowly dandelions in my lawn that feed the bees.

The issue surrounding the protection of Mother Earth has sadly become politicized in recent years. Yet the suspicion regarding the integrity of environmental science threatens all living things and prevents legislation and efforts to prevent further damage to the planet.

Meanwhile, for the love of all living things and for the beauty of this "blue marble," the Earth, let us commit ourselves to doing what we can and supporting others who can do more, to take better care of our Mother, Nature, without whom we won't survive.