It Was 40 Years Ago Today

Most of you were not alive 40 years ago. I wasn't but Mom was. She doesn't remember the first Earth Day because it wasn't really a big deal back then, at least not in Chicago. Her first memory of Earth Day was sometime in the 80s. Celebrations started happening, people starting becoming aware of the issues, and a buzz was starting about this one special spring day.

Earth Day grew in scope in the 90s but then really took off once we entered the new millenium. Parties were organized, groups formed, and people really started getting involved. Now, all the events surrounding this one special day have spilled over and turned into Earth Week. Ahh, a whole week to celebrate the wonder that is Mother Earth.

Mom's awareness of her surroundings began with her first sea turtle trip and were then heightened during her first trip to Costa Rica. It should come as no surprise to anyone that it was the presence of birds, like this boat billed heron she saw while motoring down the Tortuguero River, that raised her awareness and made her change the path she had been on. She's never looked back, never questioned her decision to give up her career and start anew.

Many biologists credit Aldo Leopold with their decision to study and teach biology. It's like a light bulb went on over their heads after reading A Sand County Almanac. So poetic yet so simple, this book is like pure prose that flows from the heart of Leopold. You feel like you are with him as he lives with the changing of the seasons, the seasons that make living in the midwest a joy for most, a struggle for some. He not only appreciated that with which he could see, but also that with which he imagined. There's truly something magical in this book that will move you and inspire you to want to get outside today and every day as you begin to understand and feel the beauty of your surroundings.

Mom can't help but think about Rachel Carson today and most days for that matter. The world would be a different place today had Carson not changed the path of destruction the U.S. was on with their use of the pesticide DDT. It was Carson that proved the evils of this chemical and documented its effects on the natural world in her book Silent Spring. Every time you see a bald eagle, please thank Carson for saving them because had DDT continued to be used, they would have long gone extinct.

Rachel Carson died before Mom was born and before Carson herself would realize the fruits of her labor. In death, she was celebrated as having saved the natural world as we know and it's for this that she is credited with starting the modern environmental movement.

It's no coincidence that Earth Day is celebrated in the spring because the renewal of Mother Earth in all her glory, begins anew each spring just like it has since the beginning of time. It was Carson who told us "It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the comtemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility." Oh to be humbled by what we often take for granted. Her words echo through our minds as we are reminded that things are changing, for good and bad, but that we need only step outside because "Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." Such comforting words from one of the wisest women of the 20th century.

The first chapter of Silent Spring is "A Fable for Tomorrow". Mom sometimes wonder if Carson's tomorrow is today or perhaps a few years down the road. The fable was set in a town in the heart of America, not unlike the town we live in today.

Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change...

There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example - where had they gone? Many people spoke of them, troubled and disturbed. The feeding stations in the backyards were deserted. The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices. On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.

This town does not actually exist, but it might easily have a thousand counterparts in America or elsewhere in the world. I know of no community that has experienced all the misfortunes I describe. Yet every one of these disasters has actually happened somewhere, and many real communities have already suffered a substantial number of them. A grim specter has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may easily become a stark reality we all shall know.

Mom thinks of this every morning when she hears the birds as they wake up from their roost. These same birds, the ancestors of those Carson heard, are still here for now. But for how long? Carson dedicated Silent Spring to Albert Schweitzer who said "Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth." Silent Spring was published in 1962, a few years before Schweitzer's death in 1965, but these words, a grim predictor of our future perhaps, remain a chilling reminder of a disaster we can avoid.

It is with Carson and Leopolds' legacies in mind that I ask you to go outside today, look around, listen carefully, smell the fresh air and remember that the times they are a changing. We have the power to make changes every single day. Every decision we make affects the planet. By recognizing what we have to live for, we can decide whether or not we value what we have and what we want to preserve. It's like Mom was taught long ago - you can't expect someone to want to save something if they don't love it. Make a connection with the natural world and express your joy as you live in it. Tread a little lighter each day and take time to appreciate what Mother Earth has to offer, for it's the only home we have.