As usual, I started my day early and got up before 6. I boiled water, ground coffee beans and put on a YouTube video for background. The caffeine soon kicked in and my mind became alert. Today was Earth Day and that was where I directed my attention. I went to posts on brainpickings tagged "Rachel Carson."
Rachel Carson and others lamented that billions of birds had died in the 1950s and 1960s, and no one noticed. But my older brother Bill had noticed. When I was a boy my father grew acres of cabbage which he protected from caterpillars with DDT. I remember him walking in a cloud of white dust for hours. Within a year or so, Bill noticed that our farm had become silent; the birds were gone. I remember Bill being angry with our father. DDT was soon banned and my father stopped growing cabbage. And the birds came back.
I live in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico. There are birds here, lots of birds. Every morning I hear a chorus of bird song.
I posted a link to The Writing of “Silent Spring”: Rachel Carson and the Culture-Shifting Courage to Speak Inconvenient Truth to Power on five places on facebook with my comment:
How will you celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day? Perhaps you will read the beautiful writings of Maria Popova as she pays tribute to Rachel Carson, who inspired the modern environmental movement. Perhaps you will join me in reflecting on how I was complicit, ignoring her warnings far too long. Perhaps we can reflect on how little impact Earth Day has had. Perhaps we can reflect on how little impact the Environmental Protection Agency, also founded in 1970, has had. Perhaps we can reflect on why we remained too silent as the decades pass and the earth warmed.
I tuned in to Earth Day Live which was live streaming all day. The presenters were reminiscing about the early days of Earth Day and the environmental movement and the different challenges youth are facing today. I noted that there were 2,702 viewers with the numbers steadily rising. As I listened I heard lots of positive stories. I thought to myself, yes, battles won and a war lost. As I continued to watch I saw young environmental activists from all over the world. The number of viewers had risen to 5,111 and I thought to myself, only a few thousand, why not millions!
My facebook post got an immediate response from my niece, Natasha Greener MacLean, the most environmentally aware relative I have. She and her husband built a very environmentally friendly home in Clifton, Nova Scotia which I enjoyed seeing, truly impressive. I also had a nice exchange with our friends in Quebec City, Kasia and Sebi.
I also posted How will we live? urban prepping & rural resilience’s momentum on facebook with my comment:
How will you celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in this new age of coronavirus? Perhaps you will watch this recent, beautiful video. My friend Peter Lawrence appears at about 30:48 and we live in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico.
One presenter on Earth Day Live questioned the lack of progress and wisely noted the need to change the narratives we live by. For most of my life I lived by the narrative of making progress. I see the Mexicans around me living by that same narrative. Those who take the bus aspire to buy a motorcycle, thus making progress. More than once in our town I have seen a family of four on one motorcycle! Those with motorcycles aspire to buy a car or a truck, thus making progress. And it is not unsual to see a dozen men in the back of a pickup heading to a construction site. How many aspire to get their own vehicle? How many Mexicans today aspire to vacation abroad as I was able to do for decades. Can I now say to my Mexican neighbors, you must find a new narrative or you will kill the planet? Therein lies our dilemma. We must change the narrative. We cannot change the narrative.
After a late breakfast of fruit, yogurt and granola followed by coffee on the terrace with Pat while enjoying our view of Lake Chapala, I watched a few YouTube videos.
"It can be done." - an Earth Day message
Earth Day 2020 - We can be the changers
Earth Day 2020 demo painting of a spring forest in realistic impressionism with palette knife
Earth Day 2020 4K Earth From Space : Beautiful Relaxing Music & Views
At 2 pm I hosted a zoom meeting of eight members of the Lakeside Pathfinders. We celebrated Earth Day by sharing how Mother Earth has brought us joy and we expressed our sorrow for the damage being done to her. Zoom works under our current circumstances but we look forward to meeting again in person.
Later in the afternoon I turned my attention to physical fitness. I used elastic bands for upper body exercises and a bench for a few core muscle exercises. That was followed by a brisk 60 minute walk on my treadmill while listening to some lovely sax music.