Sustainable Tarpon Springs - Earth Activism

This coming Monday, April 22, 2013, marks the 43rd official worldwide celebration of Earth Day.  Originally, the name and concept was pioneered by John McConnell at a UNESCO conference in San Francisco as a day to observe harmonious living on our planet.  

A month later a separate Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as a environmental ‘teach-in’ day and the official date was declared -  April 22.  Inspired after his visit to the California coast after the horrific 1969 oil spill near Santa Barbara, Nelson was urgent in his rally for students to get involved and raise awareness about the fragility of our environment.  

Earth Day was embraced by the United Nations, signed into being by Secretary General U Thant, and is now commemorated by over a billion people in 192 countries throughout the world.  It is featured on most calendars internationally.  Very hopeful!

Rachel Carson, (mother of the environmental movement) had published Silent Spring in 1962, bringing synthetic pesticide backlash into public awareness.  Though vehemently fought by the chemical companies, Congress implemented urgent actions to ban the use of DDT. When Earth Day began, most people recognized the dire need to prevent further anthropogenic damage to the environment.  Clearly, more regulation was needed to keep ecological disasters from happening.

However, since the 1970‘s inception of Earth Day, not much has truly changed.  Corporations have hunkered down to influence government policies to ease regulations and rule in their favor to minimize financial responsibility.  The United States Supreme Court has protected corporations as ‘people’ and ecosystem devastation continues.

We all witnessed the damage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and more recently in the Gulf of Mexico, the Deep Water Horizon disaster.   Even though drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been temporarily stalled, the Keystone Pipeline continues to be built.  All the while, putting more research into conservation and renewable, clean sources of energy is stalled.

In recent years, rather than destructive environmental actions being sensibly regulated, we find the ‘right to protest’ is being more regulated than ever.  As necessity is always ‘the mother of invention’ - it is certainly time to think outside of the box we have occupied in the past and lead the charge through creative solutions!

I would feel entirely hopeless about reversing the trends, except for some amazing work being done by the Community Environmental Defense Fund and their Democracy School which teaches and empowers citizens.  CELDF has been working in communities throughout the country to legally limit corporate powers on local ecosystems, and effectively establish the ‘Rights of Nature’.  http://www.celdf.org

Another amazing organization for sustainability education is the Bioneers.  I have attached three videos from a Bioneers’ conference, where Mari Margil (Associate Director of CELDF) explains the victories for environmental protection in situations where local communities were being plundered by outside, multinational corporations.

What can each of us do to reverse the damage?  We can examine our personal demand for resources to support our lifestyle.  We can pay attention to our choices - for transportation, for energy, for the distances our food travels to get to Tarpon Springs.  We can always seek organic food and get involved in demanding food labeling. 

Taking Earth Day a step further, we can learn to not only be responsible stewards of our environment, but to also establish the ‘Rights of Nature’ in our own community.  I read encouraging stories all the time about youngsters who are taking up these causes because they get it!  I think it’s time for us adults to catch up to the awareness of the children.

So, let’s deeply and sincerely celebrate Earth Day this year!  Let’s remember how thankful we are for the beautiful gift of this planet, and ask ourselves what we can do to be part of the solution.  Now is the time!  Happy Earth Activism to all of us.