Today is Earth Day which was first observed world-wide with giant marches and rallies on April 22, 1970. It took the energy and activism of the peace movement and anti-Vietnam War protests and gave people a new purpose. It has generally been credited with reorienting somewhat stodgy and human-use focused conservationism into a dynamic ecology movement. It is still widely celebrated and has become a kind of semi-official holiday. But it has often been co-opted and is used both by polluting mega corporations and thumb-twiddling governments as green washing and providing support for band aid personal activities like recycling to avoid deeper changes which would cut profits, re-order economies, and fundamentally change how we live our lives.
The radical cutting edge of environmentalism is now the youth-led climate change activists inspired by Greta Thunberg which accept no excuses, demand immediate action, and are willing to employ mass disruptive direct action.
This year the ugly, brutal invasion of Ukraine also reminds us that war itself is an ecological disaster as if other conflicts involving non-Europeans like those in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, sub-Saharan Africa, Myanmar, and Central America were not enough evidence.
Still, Earth Day remains at least an important reminder for many people. Today we share appropriate poems for the occasion by the always inspiring Marge Piercy and a still kicking Old Man.
Marge Piercy.
The Birthday of the World
On the birthday of the world
I begin to contemplate
what I have done and left
undone, but this year
not so much rebuilding
of my perennially damaged
psyche, shoring up eroding
friendships, digging out
stumps of old resentments
that refuse to rot on their own.
No, this year I want to call
myself to task for what
I have done and not done
for peace. How much have
I dared in opposition?
How much have I put
on the line for freedom?
For mine and others?
As these freedoms are pared,
sliced and diced, where
have I spoken out? Who
have I tried to move? In
this holy season, I stand
self-convicted of sloth
in a time when lies choke
the mind and rhetoric
bends reason to slithering
choking pythons. Here
I stand before the gates
opening, the fire dazzling
my eyes, and as I approach
what judges me, I judge
myself. Give me weapons
of minute destruction. Let
my words turn into sparks.
a—Marge Piercy
And finally, another from that annoying Old Man.
The Fire Next Time is Now
August 27, 2019
For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
—2 Peter 3: 5-7 The Bible New King James Version
Okay, so Biblical Prophecy is not my thing.
Mumbo-jumbo, mystic-tristick bullshit.
It gives me a rash and a headache.
But this creeps me out, you know?
Cripes look at the headlines!
Record Heat Wave Feeds Massive Australian Bush Fires
Wildfires Permanently Alter Alaska’s Forest Composition
Huge Wildfires in the Arctic and Far North Send a Planetary Warning
Siberia is Burning!
Lungs of the World Ablaze in the Amazon
More Fires Now Burning in Angola, Congo Than Amazon.
Maybe Peter, or whoever wrote in his name,
was onto something after all.
I don’t know exactly who is un-godly
—me probably, you maybe,
those guys over there,
but maybe the day of judgement and perdition
is on us all after all.
We failed somehow despite the warnings
of a thousand prophets, Jeremiahs, and Cassandras
who warned us over and over
to do something before it’s too late.
Is it too late really? We beg for answers from the Holy seers.
Hear our plea
Al Gore
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Gagged scientists of NOAA and NASA
Greta Thunberg and your children’s crusade.
Elders of the Alaskan Nunakauyarmiut Tribe
Can we wake up, you know, like Scrooge on Christmas morning
fresh and new, our eyes wide open
and throw open the shutters to buy the world
a turkey and a second chance?
Probably not that easy.
But you know what’s worse?
That Bible guy said no flood this time,
but he was wrong—
the oceans rise, the world sinks
Fire and Flood
Fire and Flood
Fire and Flood.
—Patrick Murfin
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