Happy-ish Earth Day
Months ago, in the before time, I started looking ahead and I landed on the optimistic milestone that Earth Day would turn 50 this year. Although it has a bit of a checkered past, this year, I projected, it will be a big deal.
And now, after the slow and painful march of that each day of 2020 has brought us, it’s finally April 22. Today we can mark Earth Day as a day that there are 80 per cent fewer flights circling the globe, crude oil can’t be given away, the canals in Venice are clear, air quality improvements can be seen from space, wildlife roam freely in the shuttered National Parks, and traffic jams that usually choke the air quality of Milan, New York, Los Angeles , Beijing and Nairobi seem like an artifact of the past.
So, yes, Happy-ish Earth Day. It seems impertinent not to celebrate, at least a little bit.
I won’t deny there’s a definite wave of disappointment that I feel. Today was supposed to be a day that we took stock of the importance of what we have achieved. We have Greta, global school strikes for climate action, AOC has become a rockstar politician trumpeting The Green New Deal, and rather suddenly, Climate Change was polling as a prominent issue to take out on the campaign trail, only now it helps you to win.
But thinking back on it all now, I can’t help but wonder if, for those who were paying attention, we were all suffering a giant case of hubris.
Because, really. Despite all the bluster, despite all the optimism, we were really riding the wake of a massive disaster wave. Australia burned, and then the Amazon. Antarctic temperatures are charting new records, cresting 20 C in February. The Arctic is warming at a rate twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Let’s not forget the extensive choral bleaching of coral reefs and the discovery of microplastics in every corner of the earth.
Today, Earth Day is officially middle-aged. Which means, fittingly, that it’s ripe for a crisis. And what’s clear is that that crisis is coupled with the larger and very obvious crisis of the global pandemic of Covid-19.
For me, this year the Earth Day wins come with the most gigantic trade off. Now we also must all shoulder a very global economic collapse. Unemployment is already setting new records, with more to come. The WHO has just predicted a looming famine of ‘Biblical proportions’ for food insecure countries, with the World Food Program warning that as many as 265 million people could face starvation by the end of this year. And the potential of the pandemic infesting migrant communities and refugees settlements is terrifying.
But here’s the thing. This can be turned around. I have to believe it. There is a choice to be made. Maybe that same hubris can be the thing that shames us into action.
It’s very disappointing to see how some governments are favouring industry while they spend historic amounts of our tax dollars. This crisis has brought about the best and the worst in leadership, at all levels of government and leadership.
Come on people, we need to pull together. Here’s a primer on where to start.
National Governments. Policy-makers. Investment arms of corporations. Large banks. It’s time to chose to make a shift. A really really big one. Like big on par with what Franklin D. Rosevelt did in the 1930s with the New Deal. That kind of big. But then we also need it on the small end too: Municipal governments, school super-intendants, non-profits leaders, heck, even crossing guards, your Chiropractor and the person who sells you your vegetables. In Toronto, a group of Public Librarians repurposed their municipal buildings into food banks. We. All. Need. This.
And we all can. There are signs that this is starting. Milan is making way for more bicycles in the city core post lockdown, realizing the opportunity, and the correlation between air quality and Covid-19 deaths. There is a striking similarity among the countries with the best Coronavirus response, and who lead them. They responded with decisiveness, truth, and technology. And love.
So, Happy-ish Earth Day. I’m going to mark my indifference to celebrating this day be the thing that I celebrate.
