We’re in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone’s arguing over where they’re going to sit. – David Suzuki
I am old enough to remember when we celebrated the first Earth Day. One day.
Shorter than Black History Month. Which seems a shame. On both accounts.
Think I wrote this piece in 1989. Wouldn’t it be great if somebody pointed out some problems we should maybe take a look at? So that thirty-four years later, we would have solved some stuff.
Where can we find such a person? The issues are so mysterious.
On Earth Day, it seems like a good time to take stock at where we are on this planet. How are we doing?
In these matters, I tend to look to the yogi (Berra) who said, “You can observe a lot of just by watching.”
So I did. Here’s a reasonably random selection of headlines culled from the daily papers in a recent week.
An Uncertain Future.
Air quality fell in 1988.
The United States may supply tools for nuclear proliferation.
Official: Aid agency fails poorest.
National toxicology program findings link tooth-decay-fighting chemical to bone cancer in male laboratory rats.
(Male laboratory rat got to be one of the worst jobs ever.)
Candidates climb aboard death-penalty bandwagon.
Mayor appoints leaders to plan for the future.
(Here’s an idea: appoint followers for a change.)
Transportation Department police destroy homeless camp.
New estimate on savings & loan bailout says the cost could be a half trillion dollars.
($500,000,000,000.00.)
Tax critic sentenced to prison.
Growth: Expansion won’t be painless or cheap.
U.S. arms industry may face painful shakeout.
Exxon investors urge safety changes.
Reagan likely to be ‘fall guy’ in the long term.
The costs are going up.
Employers foster workaholism by applauding those who work tirelessly.
(Oh, yeah, that shit’s gotta stop.)
Alliance ties owl, high-cost housing.
Prepare for patriotism questions.
I saved this next headline for last, because its very preposterousness makes my point.
WYDEN TO PURSUE PLAN FOR CLEAN AIR IN PARKS.
Really, where do they get these crazy ideas?
We have actually reached the point where media publicize efforts by our elected representatives to eliminate pollution. Which obscures the scenic view in many national parks and wilderness areas.
Whose idea of progress is that. You tell me. Pursue. A plan. For clean air. In parks.
Don’t get me started.
Perhaps you think these out-of-context news heads are insufficient evidence. I was prepared for that. Consider some statistics collected, again randomly, over the last several months.
Roughly 609,000 black men between the ages of 20 and 29 – almost one of every four – are either in prison, on probation or on parole. Only 436,000 such black men are enrolled in college.
Cigarettes kill 350,000 Americans each year. Drugs kill 6,000. The United States ranks 20th in infant mortality.
Approximately 17,000 people were homeless in Multnomah County in 1988.
One in five adult U.S. residents is functionally illiterate.
By the time an American reaches 16, he or she may have watched 18,000 murders on television.
In 1988, 648 Oregon children between the ages of 10 and 17 tried to kill themselves.
That same year, 13,309 abortions were performed in this state.
By the end of 1988, American held more than 606 million credit cards. That same year, the United States saw 20,680 murders.
Over 37 million of us have no medical insurance.
There are more than 10,000 lawyers in Oregon. Many types of pollution go unrecognized.
Sixty percent of all households would be below the poverty line if the wives didn’t work.
Only 20 percent of this state’s eligible low-income children participate in Head Start.
Seventy-eight percent of mothers work today, compared to just 25 percent when we first celebrated Earth Day.
Nearly 2.4 million reports of child abuse and neglect – including 1,237 deaths – were recorded in 1989.
It takes the personal income of every American west of the Mississippi to pay the interest on our national debt.
Some 200,000 to 400,000 acres of wetlands vanish each year.
About 48 million disposable diapers pile up annually in metro-area landfills.
Americans throw away 148 million tons of trash yearly.
Six million dolphins have been killed since fleets worldwide started using drifts nets forty years ago.
(Our government permits a quota of 20,500 dolphin deaths per year. Conservation compromises with capitalism.)
In this country alone, 539 species, not counting homo sapiens, are endangered or threatened.
Is the Earth better off than it was before? It’s the morning after in America and I sense a sap[ping hangover.
I spent a significant portion of my childhood attending church. And I remember noticing even then how many people I’d see there only at Easter and Christmas. Those two days were enough for some folks.
I’ve seen too many wedding anniversaries that were a single evening celebrating a bad marriage. One day was enough for some relationships.
I’m concerned Earth Day will be little more than another rock concert with souvenir booths at Waterfront Park. One big party every couple of decades won’t heal what’s ailing this planet.
Years ago, Governor Tom McCall had this to say about our home. “It is the place of Oregon that means the most. We must, first and foremost, cherish the place. All other good things will follow if we recognize the special beauty first in all our planning, if we revere the magic, if we protect the quality.”
Recognize, revere and protect. How difficult can that be? Recognize, revere and protect. We can do that. We must.
There is no other Earth on which to live. No other air to breathe. No other water to drink.
No other legacy more important to our children.
No amount of dollars will protect them and our grandchildren from a dying society on a doomed planet.
It is not the environment we are seeking to preserve and protect, it is each other.
It is each other.
It is ourselves.
We are all aboard a titanic ship sailing into hot water. – The Dog