World leaders, struggling economies, developing countries, and countries at war -- we're all in this together. If we have a "common enemy" to unite us all, it's not arriving from outer space. It's already here, and -- to quote the great Walt Kelly of the gone-but-not-forgotten comic strip Pogo: "We have met the enemy and it is us."
Environmental writers have invented new names to describe our planet's situation -- wild, made-up permutations such as Eaarth or Eairth.
Eaarth: An altered planet
According to Bill McKibben, pioneering environmentalist and head of 350.org, a worldwide movement to control global warming by limiting atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions to 350 ppm, the climate battle is settled science. He's been writing books for 30 years -- his debut, The End of History -- was published in 2009. We no longer need to worry about the arrival of climate change: we're living it. McKibben continues to warn of climate change and its effects on human society. The name Eaarth, for example, was coined to indicate that our planet has been fundamentally altered by human activity. His many books form an important commentary on the staatus quo of life on earth.The 350 ppm rollback has not been achieved. Earlier in this decade, in fact, the NY Times reported that Beijing had posted a "crazy bad" reading of 775 ppm. And China is now burning more coal than all the rest of the planet combined.
A new website, CO2 Earth, was recently launched to report the daily CO2 readings recorded at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. It's worth a visit and a conversation.
Two more resources to consider
Two additional names and debuts to celebrate: a 2016 film from Diana Beresford-Kroeger (Call of the Forest) and an amazing catalog of ideas from Whole Earth catalog contributor Paul Hawken (Drawdown, 2017) add inspiring ideas to the issue of climate change.
Beresford-Kroeger has consummate credentials for a forest activist. Raised in the Irish Druid tradition (Ireland is a land of forests that has lost almost all of its old-growth trees), she learned the ways of the Celtic triad of mind, body and soul. This included the philosophy of healing, the laws of the trees, Brehon wisdom and the Ogham alphabet, all of it rooted in a vision of nature that saw trees and forests as fundamental to human survival and spirituality. Out of that huge, holistic vision have come the observations that put her at the forefront of her field: the discovery of mother trees at the heart of a forest; the fact that trees are a living library, have a chemical language and communicate in a quantum world; the major idea that trees heal living creatures through the aerosols they release; that they carry a great wealth of natural antibiotics and other healing substances; and, perhaps most significantly, that planting trees can regulate the atmosphere and the oceans, and even stabilize our climate. This film is not to be missed. It's based on scientific research published in her encyclopedic Arboretum America, about Northern American woody plants and perennials,and Arboretum Borealis, which covers plants of the global boreal habitat.
The 80 projects summarized in Drawdown include initiatives in energy, food, women/girls, buildings/cities, land use, transport, and materials science. The ideas presented are being enacted throughout the globe, and are ranked in terms of cost-effectiveness - both in carbon cost and dollar cost. Prepare to be totally engaged. If pursued with discipline, they offer a credible path to reach drawdowns - the reversal of greenhouse gases that have built up in our atmosphere primarily from the burning of fossil fuels - coal, oil, and natural gas. Entrepreneur and activist Hawken, along with and a who's who of scientists and foundations, stand behind this awesome publication. There is even an online set of references for those who ask: What can I do to help?
Citizens' groups play a role
What if government agencies, possibly for political reasons, decline to impose or decide to remove environmental regulations and thereby endanger the climate? What options remain? Rapidly growing citizens' groups, such as Mom's Clean Air Force, co-founded by Dominique Browning in the U.S., have stepped up with rallies and projects to raise awareness and to protest rollbacks of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts established as part of the Environmental Protection Agency legislation.
But will rallies and citizen pressure provide the political will needed when governmental authorities deny climate realities?
Eairth: Embracing the sensuousness of place
A consummate spokesman for an optimistic future is the ecological philosopher and activist David Abram, whose two books -- The Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal -- ask us to experience the true magic of nature from our deepest animal selves. He was one of the first nature writers to broaden the definition of our planet to include "the more-than-human world." His writing is as luminous and compelling as clear air or clean water. I continue to buy his books because I'm forever giving away my own copies and then need to replace them. What will it take?
April 22, 2020 will mark the 50th anniversary of the original Earth Day in 1970. As just one of the myriad small community groups who support the "friends of the Earth" agenda, our local garden club is planning a community event to commemorate ongoing efforts to honor and befriend the planet. We will also focus our outreach programs to address issues such as sustainable gardening practices; concern for native species, pollinators, and biodiversity; the inclusion of fruit and nut shrubs and trees in our home garden "bioplan"; carbon sequestration; implementing energy-saving initiatives; seed swapping and saving -- the list goes on. We hope to raise community awareness that all these efforts make a difference. We're celebrating the Earth by gardening as if the planet depends on it.
We are fortunate to have a wonderful local non-profit called Grow Native Massachusetts. Their motto is: "Every garden matters -- Every garden counts." They sponsor ecological workshops (for locals) as well as a fabulous series of talks by leading garden practitioners and researchers (with online videos for anyone who has an Internet connection). Check them out. They're answering the urgent call of famed biologist and author E.O.Wilson, as laid out in Half-Life: Our Planet's Fight for Life (p.3). It's called the Half-Earth proposal. It's radical, and it runs like this: "...by setting aside half the planet in reserve, or more, we [can] save the living part of the environment and achieve the stabilization required for our own survival." Wow -- Are we up for (or is it "down with"?) that?
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