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OBSERVATIONS
April 22, 2021 |
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"Earthrise" --- the famous NASA
photo from the Apollo 8 moon mission in 1968.
 Wingate Lassiter |
Earth Day is regaining its meaning,
perhaps, as we face global warming
The observance of Earth Day has been going on for half a century, yet this year I sense a renewed awareness of its purpose that I haven't felt since the 1970s.
Despite the rantings of those who don't accept the science, more of us are confronting the reality of what Al Gore in 2006 called An Inconvenient Truth when he wrote his book about the existential threat of climate change caused by man-made global warming.
Now, on Earth Day 2021, I see cause for both hope and despair as we assess our progress toward solving the problem.
Encouraging is the Biden Administration's rejoining the world community in the quest, coupled with the larger business community's commitment to the cause.
Remember when the previous administration in Washington sought to roll back rules for more energy-efficient automobiles? The major automakers objected because they were already geared up for change and weren't going to undo their efforts. As a result, we're seeing more electric-powered vehicles on the market with the promise of many more (and likely less expensive) "clean cars" just ahead.
Energy companies are beginning to acknowledge the proverbial "handwriting on the wall" by embracing the movement away from fossil fuels like coal and, yes, natural gas toward electricity generated from the sun and the wind. Have you not noticed the proliferation of "solar farms" throughout our region over the past few years?
And yet, we continue to be alarmed by severe weather events that scientists link, at least in part, to climate change of our own making. Now, whenever we experience a major rainstorm around here, we're watching the river --- and even some of our smallest streams --- for threats of damaging if not disastrous flooding.
On a personal note, I'm alarmed by volume of plastic containers we throw into our recycling tub for pickup by the town week in and week out. Just about everything we consume nowadays arrives in plastic bottles, and that stuff is not going away any time soon despite the promise of recycling.
At least paper is biodegradable, which means nature will eventually "break it down" to a harmless state (if it's not recycled).
And then there's incessant littering, especially along our roadsides. Why do folks care so little about the world around us? Thank goodness for cleanup campaigns like this weekend's Litter Sweep bringing out volunteers across North Carolina.
I'll close these Earth Day musings with the photograph below, taken this week of Meadowbrook Branch about a block from my boyhood home in South Smithfield. We youngsters used to enjoy playing in "the ditch," as we called it, oblivious to any pollutants (or scary creatures) that might have shared the spot with us. In this close-up view, it looks fairly clean, doesn't it? I sincerely hope that its future is even better.
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