Earth Day at 50 – Evolution is a state of mind

Earth from Mars

Who would have imagined that we would be in these circumstances 50 years after the first Earth Day? We all thought the ceremonial designation of a day to honor the Earth was advanced specifically to avoid this grim horizon – where Industry, Late-stage Capitalism, and rampant greed seem to be on the verge of destroying all that we love and have worked for.

I have always been a little cynical about singling out a day to celebrate something as important as Women, the Ocean, and the Earth. It is almost a set-up to ignore these very foundations of our existence when we single out just a moment to shift our attention to them. In this context, even “Earth Year” sounds trite.

But as I have recently been fond of saying; “in 1928 the Robber Barons did not expect the crash of the Stock Market in 1929, and in 1968, polluting industries were not expecting the global back-lash that led to the dawning of environmental regulation in 1969.” We can do this.

In an earlier Earth Day piece I stated “The Earth is resilient; she has weathered more violent assaults before, and returned to life with even greater splendor. But unlike the meteor strikes or the rapid growth of cyanobacteria that have triggered global mass extinctions, we can have a hand in mediating our impacts on our planet.”

Jazz singer Kitty Margolis sings this idea so beautifully in her rendition of Ivan Linz’ Evolution. Listen to this and have a good cry. And remember, it is always the darkest just before the dawn.