Earth Day, or Why You Ought To Show Some Respect

Earth Day is one of the more interesting holidays we've come up with in the last century. It's the one day a year that you can ride your bike to work, totally pitting it out, and have a little bit of forgiveness for doing so. It's the one day where you can build a compost heap for your backyard. It's the one day you can use a reusable cup. All other days are off limits, it seems. During the rest of the year, we don't have to care about the environment.

But, to be frank, the environment doesn't have to care about us, on any day. Sure, when you're hiking through the woods on a trail that you swear is your favorite, munching on some trail mix, watching the sun trickle through the branches, hearing a babbling brook babble (are there ever any coherent brooks?), it's very easy to feel like you've got a great emotional response from nature, that you and nature are super great buddies that are going to get matching tattoos and maybe start a band together. But in reality, nature's doing it's own thing the whole time, and you, with your somewhat emotional response to everything, imagine that the earth cares back.

Face it, the Earth doesn't care about you. I mean, sure, you've been with the company for a long time, but you don't get a whole lot done when you're on the clock, and what you do get done tends to make work for others. You're just as expendable as the next guy; the day we as a species get fired is the same day a new species will get the promotion and take our comfy office with a view. But too many people these days know what it's like to get a pink slip, so let's try to figure out how to not get ourselves in such a position.

It's in our own interest to take care of the environment, or, rather, act in a way that keeps us from messing with the environment more that we already have. It's important to understand that, being bound by physics, the natural world will react in ways in line with science. Put too much carbon dioxide in the air, we get more carbon dioxide in the oceans, the oceans get more acidic, fish can't handle that acidity and die, people have less fish to eat. Clear cut a forest for land development, all kinds of species get displaced, coyotes come wandering around your neighborhood to try to find food to eat. Push too hard in one direction, and the natural balance of things will swing back, sometimes slowly, sometimes violently.

It's also important for us to understand that we are relatively powerless against the earth. Have you ever been in an earthquake? A tornado? Have you ever tried to find water during a drought? When the earth swings back violently, sometimes there are lucky ones that can get out of the way before the punch connects. Sometimes.

So how does this all tie into remembering to recycle bottles and cans on the 22nd of April? In short, it has nothing to do with Earth Day. Nature doesn't have days. Nature doesn't stop being nature. Therefore, people should never stop respecting the power that the earth has. Living just one day like the earth actually means something and then spending the rest dumping garbage everywhere is a pretty good way to get the earth out of equilibrium, and that's asking for a swing of the pendulum. The best way to avoid losing a battle is to take precautions not to be in a fight in the first place. I suggest we all take a look at our lives and figure out ways that we can really respect the Earth, 365 days a year.