Earth Day: Our House, Our Responsibility And The Inheritance Of Our Children

Today April 22 is Earth Day. The popular saying goes that “the Earth is not the inheritance of our parents, but a loan for our children.” Unfortunately, it seems that we are not applying the lesson well.

As the World Health Organization (WHO) explains to us,  our lives depend on the health of the planet and all the biodiversity on Earth.

However, despite knowing this, we are neglecting it with our behavior and our habits.

We must also bear in mind that each breath of air that we breathe depends in turn on many other species that we do not even think about : trees, oceans, algae, bees that are responsible for pollinating much of the nature…

We are all part of an almost magical and subtle circle that many minds are not fully aware of. Today in our space we invite you to reflect on it.

Earth Day: our legacy

Trees are the true poems of the Earth and yet we cut them down to create paper and write our creations, our thoughts on it.

We are unable to feel the pain that we are causing with these wounds created in the voids in our forests.

If there is a reason why Earth Day is celebrated, it is to sensitize ourselves to these realities. However, we also know that it takes more than just recycling our garbage on a daily basis or controlling the use of electrical appliances.

To take proper care of our planet we would need a profound institutional, social, economic and political change.

The massive disappearance of multiple species is a fact that we cannot ignore. In the last 50 years there are already 17 animals that, unfortunately, we will only see in photographs. These data are worth reflecting for a moment.

Gaia, a living entity

Gaia was the Greek goddess who represented the Earth. This suitable name served for James Lovelock, a notable chemist, to expose the so-called Gaia hypothesis in 1969  .

• The Gaia hypothesis tells us that the Earth is a living organism and, in turn, creator of its own habitat.
• The atmosphere and the surface part of planet Earth is a coherent totality where life is regulated and balanced so that everything has its reason for being.
• The biosphere, the atmosphere, the oceans and the land are united and related as an exceptional “living being”. What hurts one, ends up affecting the rest.

This hypothesis of “unity” and living entity was criticized by the scientific community. However, James Lovelock defended his Gaia theory to show any man-made imbalance would have consequences.

In particular, any attack on rainforests or continental shelves. Something that, unfortunately, has already happened.

The Earth fears our hands

The Earth has offered us its legacy, its seas, its wind, its flowers and its vast home as an exceptional gift that we have failed to respect as it deserves.

Acts as small as, for example, making use of plastic bags, generate immense damage that we can hardly even imagine. Hundreds of animals can be trapped in these materials when they reach the oceans.

• In fact, there are veritable “floating garbage islands”. One of them is the existing one in the Pacific, where plastic and infinite waste materials have created a dark spot visible by satellites and which already has 1,400,000 km². Something terrible.

• Scientists also explain to us that at present, we would also be promoting what is known as the sixth mass extinction.
• Since the beginning of the 19th century, we have been forcing numerous disappearances in our biodiversity and in our forests.

So much so that the International Union for Conservation of Nature points out that one in eight species of birds is in danger, as well as one in four mammals, one in three amphibians and almost 70% of all plants.

We are doing something wrong. Our home, our creative goddess, Gaia, is in danger. If, as Lovelock told us, we are all part of the same unit, its scars are also our wounds.

It is therefore time to react, to become aware that we have turned on the switch for a new mass extinction.

Although its effects will be more shocking several centuries from now, we are already feeling it. Climate change and the extinction of many animals are symptoms of this situation.

The best time to fight for Gaia and for ourselves is now.