MZD - Ep 72 Happy Earth Day To You!

“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” ~ Robert Swan

Welcome to the Mountain…

Here at Mountain Zen Den, as a community, we’re all about living a beautiful, fully-present, healthy, natural (Nature-based) Lifestyle - not only getting back to the Earth, but giving back to the Earth as well. Nature is the most generous and giving friend when fully appreciated and taken good care of.

If you had your choice, would you rather live in a stagnant, man-made plastic world or a healthy, vibrant, clean and natural one?  Sort of a no-brainer, I know.

Astonishingly, we humans have become weapons of mass destruction.

Why do I bring this up right now?  Well, this Sunday, April 22^nd is the 48^th birthday of internationally celebrated Earth Day!

This year’s Earth Day Theme is “End Plastic Pollution”.

From the Earth Day 2018 website:

Plastic pollution is poisoning our oceans and land, injuring marine life, and affecting our health!

Help End Plastic Pollution by finding out how many plastic items you consume
every year and make a PLEDGE to reduce the amount.

Earth Day 2018 is dedicated to providing the information and inspiration needed to fundamentally change human attitude and behavior about plastics.”

 

Here’s a few statistics to blow your mind and bring you up to date:

According to the American Museum of Natural History, since the first Earth Day in 1970, our population has doubled from 3.7 billion to nearly 8 billion people on the planet. We are emitting 2.4 times more CO2, causing temperatures to rise. Sea ice has melted 13.3% decline per decade causing sea levels to rise 10.8 cm higher worldwide.

Sadly, wild animal populations have shrunk – Land animals by 38%, marine animals by 36%, and fresh water animals by an alarming 81%! Since 1970, over 170 animal species have been declared extinct.

And we are currently losing over 15 billion trees each year.  That’s 56 acres of forest every minute!

But there’s hope.  On the flip side, in many ways our world has also changed for the better.

President Richard Nixon signed the clean air act in 1970.  Even as we’ve used 44% more energy, driven 184% more miles, and seen our economy grow 246%, key pollutants have decreased by a whopping 71%!

New cars, buses and truck are 99% cleaner. And unleaded gasoline means over 90% less lead in children’s blood since 1970. In 1972, the U.S. banned the chemical insecticide DDT. Since then bald eagles have returned from the brink of extinction.

In 1987, the world banned CFCs, (Chlorofluorocarbons used in aerosol sprays), which were depleting Earth’s ozone layer.  As a result, ozone-depleting emissions are now down 98%, and the ozone layer has stabilized and begun to recover, preventing an estimated 2 million skin cancers per year.

And finally, in 2015, 197 countries agreed to dramatically reduce CO2 emissions, and the ozone layer is projected to return to 1980 levels by 2050 – 2070.  Each year more than 1 billion people participate in Earth Day activities.

So what can we do?  You and I?

First of all, as a committed and mindful “Citizen Naturalist”, that is, one who cares about Nature and preserving and protecting our planet, we can educate ourselves. Found in the show notes to episode is a link to the Earth Day website where you can sign up, make a pledge and participate in the Earth Day activities taking place in and around your community.

As an individual, you can learn about and act to end plastic pollution, one of the most important environmental problems facing us today.  Plastics are not only destroying the beauty and aesthetics of our planet, but they are killing the wildlife as well.  This is due mainly to the fact that they are un-biodegradable by nature, creating challenges for properly discarding them.

But disposing of plastic isn’t the only issue.  The production of plastic, which is a petroleum product, releases harmful gas emissions into the environment including carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, ozone, benzene and methane.  Sounds like the makings for a terrifying SyFy thriller on a world gone bad!  I’m telling you, the problem is huge!

“But plastic makes our lives so convenient!” someone might say.  I’m glad you brought this up.  You are here today because you are a mindful, nature-loving person, who cares about little things like the natural world around us.  Rather than take the time in this show to explain what you can do as a concerned citizen of planet Earth, we’re just going to send you to the show notes for today’s show (found below), have you click on the link provided there for Earth Day 2018.  Or you can just go to www.earthday.org.

Also, you can share this podcast with everyone you know…

Yes, we’ve got work to do, but we also have something to celebrate today!  We are more aware than we were in the past, and awareness mixed with mindfulness leads to a better world for all of us. 

Be the change you want to see happen!

Until next time, Happy Earth Day to you!

For more information visit Earth Day 2018